


Fortnite: Of Two Worlds

by EspyFandoms



Category: Borderlands (Video Games), DCU (Comics), Fortnite (Video Game), John Wick (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Dark Reflections fall under categories, EGO's fisherman is hopeless with love, Each skin has their own unique personality, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Everyone's favorite blonde default is a dumbass that means well, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Getting to Know Each Other, He can only go "Glup glup", I have plans for a couple future chapters ;3, I think?, IDFK Marvel and DC characters are in this game, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Not gonna lie this is just full of my Fortnite headcanons, Outcast's alter ego has a different name, Past Character Death, Possessed, Rating May Change, Rippley can't talk, Saying "Demogorgon" is a big no-no for Chapter 1, i'll add more as the story goes on - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:42:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 39,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25458736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EspyFandoms/pseuds/EspyFandoms
Summary: The Chapter 1 characters have survived the Blackhole, but now they're in an unfamiliar world. Unbeknownst to them, many twists and turns await them after their presence had been discovered.
Relationships: 8-Ball/Remedy (Fortnite), Brite Bomber/Drift (Fortnite), Jonesy/Turk (Fortnite), Rex/Cuddle Team Leader (Fortnite)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 16





	1. New world, new people

**Author's Note:**

> Don't ask why I decided to pair a soldier with a bearded fisherman. It came to me one night and never left, so I've rolled with it. Evidently, nothing's safe from my shipping mind. Not even Fortnite.

“We’ve received reports of something destroying whole sections of buildings on Apollo. From walls to entire buildings, nothing has been off limits. Whatever it is has shown to be strong enough to break through steel.”

EGO watched as their boss flashed through the images of the destruction caused on their island with a mixture of concern and fascination.

“Those sure are some hungry termites…” Skye muttered to herself, half serious, half joking. She giggled when Turk, leader of the EGO team, looked at her like she was crazy.

“Is there a new species of termites that can chew through rock and steel that I should know about?” He questioned. “This is very serious, Skye. Something’s on our island that we didn’t know about and is destroying everything.”

Journey straightened up. “Are you sending us back to get to the bottom of this, sir?”

Midas nodded as he leaned back in his golden chair. “This can’t continue. If the ones responsible for this prove to be a threat, it must be dealt with. Journey, you and 8-Ball are to scout out the island before we send our men in. We need to know what we’re dealing with first. The rest of you are to stay put until further notice. Any questions?”

“No sir,” responded Remedy, “we understand our orders.”

“Good. You are dismissed. Journey and 8-Ball are to leave immediately. We can’t waste any time.”

  
\-------------------------------------------------------

“Enjoying yourself, Jonesy?”

Cracking an eye open, the soldier saw Ramirez watching him float on his back in the lake with amusement. With a grin, he reached down and began to pet his sleeping dog Bonesy who decided that his chest was the perfect place to lay down.

“Can’t exactly blame me, can you?” He laughed. “After all, we never got to swim back at… well, you know. Everything here is so… familiar yet different. So far, nothing has happened to us except coming here. She still gone by the way?”

The leader nodded with a pout. “No one’s seen her since she dropped us all here. Have you found the others yet?”

“No… No, I haven’t… I’m starting to get worried. It’s been days, Ramirez.”

“I know… But let’s try to stay positive. This place is big, they might have landed somewhere. Now get out of the water. I found a new outfit for us.”

With a chuckle, Jonesy moved his now fully awake dog to his head and swam back to shore.

It had been a few days since they were dropped on to this new island after the blackhole incident. Everyone was accounted for except for most of what they called the “Defaults”. The only ones that were immediately present were Ramirez, Banshee, and Jonesy. Even though they’re set on trying to find them, most of their people have been taking the opportunity to explore their new island.

  
\-------------------------------------------------------

  
Drift held up his cloak and examined the blue slime still clinging to it. “What is this stuff?”

“I think it’s supposed to be Slurp Juice.” Rex responded as he attempted to shake the same slime off his boots. “Kind of a waste to be dumping it out into a swamp.”

“Probably why the map calls this place “Slurpy Swamp”, Rexy-Poo.” Cuddle Team Leader called out with a giggle from the balcony she was on.

Brite Bomber laughed as she examined a Slurp Juice barrel. “Who woulda thought we’d find a factory making Slurp Juice. But all we’re finding are the potions with no actual jar of Slurp in sight.”

“I guess the Slurp we’re used to isn’t in this world.” Drift mused as he shook his cloak to get the Slurp off. “We really _are_ in a different world…”

Hearing her lover’s sorrow, the pink haired leader placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled. “Hey. It’s gonna be okay. We’re all in this together, Drift. C’mon, let’s get back to searching. I’m sure one of the-”

“Guys. I found something.”

Turning their attention to Cuddles, who had somehow walked down the stairs without them noticing, they watched as she picked something up off the ground next to one of the vats. It jingled as it was lifted up. Holding it up to her squad, the mask wearing psycho watched as they processed what she was holding.

“No…”

“Are… are those…?”

“We have to show these to Ramirez.”

  
\-------------------------------------------------------

“World’s greatest detective in deed.”

Batman looked back at Recon Expert with a scowl. “You got a better idea?”

“Why not glide around this place like you did back in Gotham City? Who knows, maybe you’ll see something by making like a damn bat and fucking flying!”

“Did you find something for me to use to stay in the air that I don’t know about?”

“Alright you two, that’s enough.” Brite Gunner got in between them with his hands up. “No need to fight. Let’s just take a few seconds to calm down, alright?”

Recon folded her arms with a huff while Bats simply rolled his eyes before walking away. Sleuth sighed at the sight.

“Why did I agree to go with you guys again?”

BG smiled brightly at the detective. “Because you didn’t choose a squad to suit you in time before we set off. Hey, think Batman is gonna return soon? Think he’s flying solo?”

Sleuth sighed again with a small smile before placing a hand on the cheerful man’s shoulder to stop him from asking more questions. “I’ve told you this before; a detective needs more evidence before they can answer something.”

With a smile and a nod, the cheerful man turned his attention to a stack of chairs. As he walked over to it, Recon Expert looked over at the detective.

“Well, you can’t say he isn’t optimistic. He even smiles at the cult.”

“What I can’t figure out,” Sleuth began as he folded his arms, “is why you both agreed to take him along. I’m not saying he’s not helpful to us as a whole, just wondering why he’s with a detective dressed as a bat and a recon expert.”

“Jonesy was hoping he would make the bat loosen up a bit, so he made us take him with us.”

“How exactly did he pull that off?”

“I’m still wondering that myself.”

“Guys…”

Both turn to face BG as he held up the thing that had caught his attention and immediately felt their blood run cold. But before they could say anything, Batman was suddenly right next to them.

“That’s not the only one.” He explained before handing Recon something.

She could feel tears beginning to form in her eyes. She knew that this was about to get worse before it has a chance to get better.

  
\-------------------------------------------------------

_“Sir, we found what was destroying everything.”_

Midas leaned back in his chair. “Impressive. It’s only been about 35 minutes. What did you two find, agent Journey?”

There was a pause.

“I don’t have all day, you two.”

 _“People. A lot of them.”_ 8-Ball stated calmly.

The leader raised an eyebrow at this. “People you say. How many?”

 _“I lost count. There’s so many of them. The strangest one is… a walking banana?”_ Journey had sounded so lost by her own words.

“I’m sorry,” Outcast began, “a walking _what_?”

_“A walking banana. I_ wish _I was making this up! I’ll even send you a photo!”_

“Focus Journey.” Midas interrupted. “What are they doing now?”

_“They’re moving somewhere. I think they might be regrouping.”_

“Then now’s our chance. I’m sending the henchmen to the island.” He turns to the rest of the EGO team. “You will assist in this operation. Agent Turk, don’t disappointment me.”

Turk nodded in understanding.

  
\-------------------------------------------------------

  
Ramirez stared at the dog tags in her hand with a mixture of devastation and horror. Forcing herself to look back up at her team, she asked “This… This is all you guys found?...”

“I’m afraid so, Ramirez…” Drift explained mournfully. “It looks like… not all of us had managed to survive the blackhole… That’s probably why Dream left so quickly… She knew…”

The leader’s vision began to blur as she stared down at the dog tags of her fallen friends. She felt Banshee place a hand on her shoulder as tears started to fall. She could hardly believe it. 

Her friends, her fellow soldiers, people she could consider family, are now gone.

“Wait where’s Jonesy?!” Carbide shouted.

Spinning around, Ramirez and Banshee saw that the blonde was no longer behind them.

“Shit!”

“We need to find him!” Ramirez shouted. “ _Now!_ ”

Just as she turned to run off, the leader saw something off the corner of her eye. Instinctively, she held her arms up to cover her eyes just as a blinding light suddenly flashed in her face. She stumbled backwards as her ears began ringing and her vision became blurred. When her vision began to return and the ringing started to die down, the leader could see and hear the absolute chaos happening around her.

Men in white suits were charging her people as they scattered in an attempt to escape only for more of the men to cut them off. Tear gas was being set off, causing many of her team to begin coughing and choking as their vision became blinded by tears. A bearded man wearing a beanie and red pullovers was shouting orders for everyone to get down on their knees with their hands behind their heads. Ramirez watched as John Wick tried to fight back against the men, but because of the tear gas and flashbangs, there was little he could do and was eventually knocked out.

Ark spread her wings and attempted to fly away, only for a man dressed in black with the eight symbol for a billiard ball on his helmet to roughly drag her back down.

“ _You bastards!_ ” The angel howled in rage as she was pinned down. “ _This injustice will not be forgotten!_ ”

  
\-------------------------------------------------------

**“TIME FOR PLAY TIME!!”**

“STOP PLEASE!!!”

**“I’LL WEAR YOUR HEAD AS A HAT!! HAHAHAHAHA!!”**

“I’LL GIVE YOU FREE TACOS!!!”

**“UNLEASH THE ORGASM!!”**

Skull Trooper watched as the Psycho chased Guaco around a tree, casually throwing popcorn into his mouth and crunching loudly while sitting on a tree stump. This wasn’t anything new, but it was still entertaining. It wasn’t like he was going to let the insane man from Pandora hurt the taco mascot… much. He didn’t forget the time he was interrupted when building a big ramp in Greasy Grove.

“Freeze! Drop your weapons and get on the ground!”

Skull Trooper turned around and found himself staring down the barrel of a Burst Assault Rifle. Looking up, he saw that behind it was a young woman with bright pink hair and magenta lipstick with a group of men in white suits behind her. It was clear that she was trying to focus on him, but he could see her eyes occasionally darting to look at the scene in front of him. In spite of the gun, he held up his snack to her.

“Popcorn?”

  
\-------------------------------------------------------

  
_Snap!_

“Damn it, Rapscallion! That was my last bobby pin!”

“Shut the hell up, Scoundrel! Just see if you can reach the ones under my hat!”

Scoundrel looked at his partner like she was crazy. “They handcuffed me _behind my back_ and we’re on the opposite poles of this scoreboard! How am I supposed to reach your head?!”

“Shut up and try, goddamnit!” The thief argued.

Before her partner in crime could respond, they were interrupted by the flash of a camera. Upon looking at where it came from, they saw a young woman with an 80s style outfit and blue and green dyed hair with her phone aimed at them. She looked down at the photo and began to snicker.

“Oh this _so_ going on the internet.”

“What the hell are you wearing?” Rapscallion questioned in bewilderment.

The fashionista looked at the handcuffed thief over her visors. “It’s called _fashion_ , bitch. Now get comfortable. Once we get you free, you’re both coming with us.”

  
\-------------------------------------------------------

**_“It’s all your fault. They’re gone because of you. Because you weren’t good enough. Because you weren’t fast enough.”_ **

Jonesy leaned against a tree as he listened to the words in his head. With his arms wrapped around himself, he tried to stop his trembling. He felt a tear fall down his cheek followed by another. He heard his dog whimper before nudging his nose against his master’s face. 

Gone. His friends were gone. And now he has to listen to the voice in his head blame him for their deaths. But that couldn’t be true, could it? It was the Visitor’s fault, wasn’t it?

**_“Try to convince yourself all you want, Jonesy. This_ was _your fault.”_**

“Shut up…” The soldier muttered weakly, trying his best to stay strong.

“Freeze!”

Snapping back to reality, the soldier realized that Bonesy was now growling. Turning around, he saw a young woman wearing a black cap turned sideways and bright yellow pullovers aiming a standard assault rifle at him. About a dozen men in white suits were standing behind her, all of whom had their weapons trained on him.

“Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air!” She demanded.

“What did I do?” The confused soldier asked.

“Don’t make me ask you twice!”

Jonesy briefly scanned the area, and upon seeing no way out, shushed his growling dog before dropping both his pistol and his pickaxe. After kicking his pistol aside, he held his hands up.

“There, I’m unarmed. Now let’s just all calm down and talk this o-”

Bonesy suddenly let out an enraged bark before the blonde felt a quick blow on the back of his head, blacking out almost instantly. The last thing he heard before blacking out, other than his dog’s worried whimpers and the woman asking for someone to carry him, was the voice saying one last thing.

**_“Nighty-night, Jonesy.”_ **

  
\-------------------------------------------------------

  
“-UCKING KILL WHOEVER LAID A HAND ON HIM! ONLY _WE_ CAN KICK HIS ASS!”

  
“Banshee, that’s enough! I’m not happy about it either, but we’re in _no_ position to pick fights!”

Bonesy whimpered as Jonesy let out a groan, nudging his master’s face before he began licking him to wake him up faster. Reaching up, he scratched his faithful friend behind his ear.

“I’m alright, boy…” He reassured his pet. Pushing himself up, the soldier groaned as he rubbed his throbbing head. “Ugh… What was that for? I complied with-”

“Hands behind your head.”

Jonesy looked up and saw the bearded man standing in front of him, Scar in hand ready for any sign of a threat. The soldier blinked before looking around. Every one of his people were on their knees with their hands behind their heads.

“What the hell? What did we do wrong?”

“Hands behind your head. I won’t ask you again.”

With a sigh, the blonde soldier complied. “Not like I have any other choice.”

Turk surveyed the group. There sure were a lot of them. By his guess, their numbers were somewhere in the hundreds. But a big group like this can’t function without a voice of reason.

“Who’s your leader?” The fisherman asked. “Step forward. We have a few questions to ask you.”

Ramirez stood up slowly, keeping her hands up. “That would be me.”

“What’s your name?”

“My name is Ramirez.”

“Why are you and your group here?”

There was a brief pause as the soldier considered her words. “Well… that’s kind of a long story. You probably wouldn’t believe me anyways.”

“Humor me.”

“If you say so. We didn’t arrive here willingly. We were brought here to escape our own island.”

“Where’d you come from then?”

“We sure as hell aren’t from here,” Banshee spoke up with a scoff, “I can tell you that!”

“Enough, Banshee!” Ramirez scolded as she looked back at her friend. “Let _me_ handle this! She’s right though. You already know we’re not from here, but it goes farther than you think.”

Turk raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

“Because,” the leader began, “it seems we’re from another dimension all together. What we were escaping from was a blackhole that destroyed our home. We were dragged out of the situation at the last second and dropped here a few days ago.”

The fisherman and his team just stared at her, completely caught off-guard by her story. They looked at each other, confused as to how to respond.

“You’re serious, right?” Turk questioned.

“Completely. As I said, you wouldn’t believe me.”

With a sigh, the fisherman turned to his team. “Keep an eye on them. I’ll contact the boss and inform him of what we were just told.”

  
\-------------------------------------------------------

  
“This is so stupid…” Banshee complained as she paced back and forth.

“I know,” Ramirez sympathized from her spot on the grass, “but this is what needs to be done if we’re to make it out of this in one piece.”

When Turk had returned from informing his boss of what they learned, he explained to the group that until he had confirmed Ramirez’s story, they were to stay where they are until further notice. Field Surgeon and Triage Trooper were taking the opportunity to check on everyone affected by the tear gas and were currently checking on Jonesy’s head.

“He’ll have a bump on the back of his head for a while,” Field Surgeon explained, “but other than that, he’s fine.”

“Good,” the leader responded as she stood up and stepped in front of her friend, “but that doesn’t mean you’re not in trouble, Jonesy!”

“Ramirez-”

“No! No excuses! What the hell were you thinking wandering off like that?! Obviously, we don’t know this island like we knew Athena and you just took off on your own?! For fuck’s sake Jonesy, I didn’t take the news well either, but that doesn’t excuse you just up and leaving like you did!”

“I’m sorry, _alright_!?” He snapped back before pulling his knees into his chest. “I just… I just needed a moment… I just wanted to think…”

Hearing her friend’s sorrow and guilt, Ramirez’s expression softened. Sitting down next to him, she wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “It’s going to be ok… We’ll get through this. Just please, don’t wander off alone again.”

“Hey.”

Both soldiers looked up to see Journey had moved right next to them.

“Did you need something else?” Ramirez questioned.

“No, it’s just… what news are you talking about?” The mountain climber inquired. Her curiosity peaked when she saw the blonde flinch at the question before becoming slightly concerned when he forced a smile.

“I-It’s nothing… nothing important…”

“Jonesy, it’s alright.” The leader said reassuringly. She looked back at the agent with a saddened look on her face. “Before your team moved in, we were informed that five of us didn’t make it to this world. They… They were our closest friends… Now, just me, Jonesy, and Banshee remain of the original eight… We’re still processing it…”

Journey said nothing at first, just stared at them with a sympathetic look before looking away.

“Oh… I’m… I’m sorry to hear that.”

Ramirez smiled softly at her. “Thank you. We just need a minute.”

“Sure…”

“Can you guys stop staring at me?” Remedy called out.

Upon following her gaze, they saw the Tomatohead cult watching the EGO team intensely. When one of their henchmen walked by, their heads slowly followed him before turning their attention back to the disturbed medic.

“Oh my fucking god…” Jonesy groaned while burying his face into his hands.

“Excuse me, brother,” one of the Tomatoheads began to a henchman while holding up a tomato, “would you care for a tomato?”

The henchman looked from the tomato to the one holding it before he hesitantly reached for the fruit.

 **“NO!!!”** Grill Sergeant cried out desperately.

Without a second to spare, he tackled the cult member to the ground as others in his group began dogpiling on top of them before the henchman could take it. Throughout the whole thing, the Tomatohead held the tomato up high, somehow keeping it safe.

“Don’t accept their tomatoes!” Someone shouted from the back. “They’re trying to recruit more cult members!”

“It is for the sauce.” Tomatohead Crown stated calmly. “The answers are in the sauce.”

“In the sauce. In the sauce.” The other members began chanting.

“Excuse me guys,” Cuddles began before pulling a tactical shotgun out from who knows where, “but could you kindly shut the fuck up?”

“Where did she get that?”

“We don’t know at this point.”

“Rex, aren’t you gonna calm your girlfriend?”

Rex shrugged casually. “Nah. Let her have fun. Besides, it’s adorable.”

The group watches as the pink bear mask wearing woman all too eagerly pushed the shotgun closer to a cult member’s face.

“Yeah… Adorable…”

“Awwww,” Cuddles cooed over her shoulder, “you’re just the sweetest, Rexy-Poo!”

“Anytime, Cuddle Bear.” He responded with a smile.

“Those two are strange…” Turk muttered.

“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Jonesy sighed. “So you’re a fisherman? What kind of fish can you catch here? This place is certainly different from our island. We couldn’t swim in any rivers, drive boats, or fish. Everytime I try to fish, I somehow keep catching Fishstick.”

As the soldier laughed, the walking fish narrowed his eyes at him.

“Uhhh…” Turk wasn’t sure how to respond to the man wanting to have a casual conversation with someone who had just held him and his group at gunpoint. “Not… a lot? Just… some Small Fry, Flopper, and Slurp Fish… I guess?”

“Fish have been affected by Slurp? That’s weird, but also kinda cool!”

“I… I guess?”

“Hey, dumbass,” Banshee began, “you’re making him uncomfortable.”

“Oh. Sorry about that.”

_“Agent Turk.”_

Turk’s hand immediately went up to his earpiece. “Yes sir?”

_“We managed to detect a power anomaly originating from the island a few days ago, around the same time their leader had claimed they arrived. It would appear that she is in fact telling the truth. There is an unused island offshore from Sweaty Sands. Move them there.”_

“Understood sir.” The fisherman looked down at Ramirez. “Our team managed to confirm your story. I apologize for any injuries we may have caused. We just had to make sure you guys weren’t a threat.”

“I understand.” The leader assured. “In all fairness, we _were_ destroying your buildings to try to build something of a camp. I can’t speak for everyone, though, so the others may not forgive you for tear gassing us right away.”

“You’re damn right I’m not gonna let this go so easily!”

“Banshee please. Ark, lower your pickaxe!”

“You guys can live on the island offshore from this one. No one’s using it, so it’ll be fine for you guys to move in.”

“Thank you. I don’t believe I got your name.”

“Turk.” The fisherman motions to his teammates. “This is Outcast, Journey, Remedy, Cameo, and 8-Ball.”

“Seems everything’s sorted out.” Batman noted as he approached the group.

“Where the hell have _you_ been?!” Recon Expert questioned angrily.

“Observing.”

“And you didn’t help us?!”

Ramirez face palmed as the two continued to argue while Jonesy sighed before laying on the grass on his back with Bonesy curling up next to him. He wasn’t sure what was in store for his group, but after everything they’ve been through, what was the worst thing that could happen at this point?


	2. Anguish and apprehension

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new threat has been discovered, endangering the lives of 2 EGO agents

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank the kind souls who left Kudos on the first chapter. That's the most attention this story's received outside of my beta readers. I also wanted to mention that this story isn't being written alone as I've made an online friend my co-author, but as far as I know, he doesn't have an account on here so I can't add him as such. Everything written goes through him before it's deemed ready to be shown.

_“…-eak!… Squ-…!”_

Letting out a pained groan, 8-Ball forced his eyes open. His vision was blurry from the pain. He could barely make out the face in front of him, but he knew who it was simply because of the green surrounding it.

“Ngh… Bushranger?…”

_“Squeak squeak!?”_

8-Ball just stared at EGO’s scout which turned out to be a mistake as he started shaking him, apparently thinking he fell unconscious. The ninja cried out in agony from the sudden movement. He attempted to push him away out of instinct, only to feel another surge of pain.

“N-No!… ‘m not alright!…”

_“Squeaksqueaksqueak!?”_ The living bush angrily inquired.

Laying his head down on the ground while attempting to take wheezing breaths, Eights tried to remember what had happened to answer Bush’s question. Where was he? And why is he on the ground in so much pain?

_“Squeak!”_

Bushranger started splashing water on his teammate’s helmet, desperately trying to keep him awake. 8-Ball suddenly realized where he was.

They were surrounded by large trees next to a river. Turning his head to his right, he could just barely make out a bridge over the water. He was in Weeping Woods.

_“Squeak squeak!”_

The ninja winced in pain as the bush picked him up and held him over his shoulders. As his team’s scout began running, he managed to catch a glimpse of where he was apparently found. He saw what was left of a battle scene.

There were slashes in trees and rocks, the grass had been stomped flat, footprints were scattered in the dirt, and his Bank Shots had been embedded into trees opposite of each other.

Now he remembered.

He tried to fight the threat that Turk had debriefed them about. The threat had looked like him and, as he discovered, fought like him as well, but it wasn’t him. Not only was his outfit white like a cue ball, he also demonstrated that unlike himself, he had no honor in fighting. His doppleganger had kicked his ass not in a battle of brute strength or skill, but by using a variety of dirty tricks to catch him off guard.

8-Ball felt great shame in his defeat, but more than that, he felt so tired. His vision began to fade. Maybe he could rest his eyes… Just for a bit… 

_“Squeak squeak squeak! Squeak squeak squeak!”_

His eyes shoot open. Bush was right. He had to stay awake. He had to fight the urge to close his eyes. 

He had to hang in there.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“ _Find them, goddamnit!_ ”

Cameo flinched at the furious order. She wanted to take a peek, but she couldn’t risk being spotted. Doing that would spell doom for both of them.

“Glup?…”

“Shhh. Keep your voice down.”

Adjusting the blanket, the fashionista did her best to hide the blob creature’s blue glow. She lifted a finger to her lips when he went to take a bite out of the apple he was holding as they heard someone walk into the barn and lift a barrel. Her heart was beating so loud, she wondered why they didn’t hear it.

Why did she get herself into this situation? All Cameo wanted to do was grab a few things from the orchard and maybe head down to Lazy Lake to buy something from The Gilded Lady. Instead, on her way to the orchard while in the Motor Boat, she saw the blob booking it from a rain of rockets and bullets from red versions of himself. They were all led by a woman with green hair, sunglasses, and black lipstick. What she had noticed immediately about her was how similar she looked to Remedy.

Seeing the fear in the poor blob’s actions, she made a split second decision and fired a missile at the group. After catching them off guard, she called out for their target to run to her. She wasn’t able to get far with him before the group destroyed the boat, forcing the fashionista to drag the blue blob with her as they attempted to escape on foot before taking refuge in the barn in Frenzy.

And now here she was, hiding from a group of enemies behind a stack of hay bales with a creature seemingly made of Slurp. Cameo was forced back into reality when she heard heavy footsteps heading for their hiding spot. Resting her hand on her holstered pistol, she looked at the blob and motioned towards the only other exit before handing him her map with the EGO Barracks marked. The fashionista then waited in anticipation.

“Sludge, did you find something?!” The woman questioned irritably.

“Glup!” The Sludge called back as he motioned for his team to move in.

**“RUN!”** Cameo shouted as she leapt out from behind the hay bales and began firing at the enemy team. **“GET TO THE BARRACKS!”**

“Glup?!” The blue Sludge asked worriedly.

“I’ll be fine, **go!** ”

After a few seconds of hesitation, he turned around and ran through the backdoor while the fashionista tried to buy him more time. She slowly made her way to the same exit, not letting up on her shots, before she quickly dashed out. She ran as fast as she could to catch up with him.

“Glup glup!”

“Keep going!”

“ _Stop them!_ ”

Cameo looked over her shoulder just in time to see a Sludge fire a rocket at them.

**“LOOK OUT!!”** She cried out before shoving the blue Sludge out of the way.

As he struggled to regain his balance, he heard a pained shriek behind him. Spinning around, he saw the blue and green haired woman struggling to get back up. While the blast wasn’t close enough to kill her, it did manage to knock her down hard, leaving her winded and disoriented.

“GLUP!”

“Go… Get… to the barracks…” She wheezed out.

He looked up from the fashionista to the green haired woman glaring at him.

“You’ve become defected, Sludge.” She stated in a matter-of-fact tone. “As such, you’ve become a liability to me. Fortunately, the boss has deemed your case worthy of studying. As my property, you’re required to come with me!”

“Run…”

The woman motioned for the other Sludge. “Finish her. We have no need for her.”

**_“GLUP GLUP!”_ ** The blob screamed before charging forward. **_“GLUP! GLUP GLUP GLUP!”_ **

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


The pain was unbearable.

With every movement, every step, 8-Ball’s body surged with more throbbing agony. He was finding it harder and harder to stay awake no matter how many times Bushranger squeaked at him. Slowly, his vision began fading to black. It couldn’t hurt to close his eyes for just a few moments… Just for a little bit… 

Suddenly, just before his eyes slid closed, the ninja heard a startled gasp followed by “Oh my god!”

“Remedy?…”

The medic rushed over to the security booth to raise the crossing gate to let Bushranger and 8-Ball through. The moment they were past it and she had lowered it back down, she was immediately by his side.

“Bush, what happened?!” She questioned as she led them to one of the barracks.

_“Squeak squeak squeak!”_

“He _what?!_ ”

After he was placed down on to one of the beds, Eights forced himself to look up at his teammate and saw the determination and great concern in her eyes. He watched as both her and Bush gathered everything she needed to try to help him. 

Once she had everything she needed, Remedy ushered the living bush out before returning to her friend’s side. She was horrified by the state he was in. His helmet and breastplate armor were cracked, he was bleeding where there were slashes in his clothes, and he was wheezing with each breath.

“I-I need to remove your helmet, Eights,” the medic began shakingly, “so I can check t-to see if you’ve suffered any head injuries. That’s okay with you, right?”

With what little strength he had left, the ninja nodded. Even when she has to do her job, she’s still trying to respect his desire to not remove his helmet in front of people. Carefully, Remedy removed the cracked helmet from his head. Upon seeing his face, she paused for a few seconds before shaking her head and turning to a table with some supplies. Picking up a syringe with a needle and a vial, she injected the needle into the small container and withdrew the medicine inside.

“I’m giving you something for pain.” Rem informed him as she placed her hand on his arm. “I’ve got you, Eights…”

8-Ball let out a wheeze as he closed his eyes and relaxed. He could barely feel the pinch of the needle being injected into his arm over the general pain he felt.

“It’ll take a while to take effect, but when it does, I promise it’ll become more bearable…”

8-Ball felt Remedy give his hand a squeeze before he heard her speed walk to grab something. He didn’t have the strength to respond, move, or even open his eyes again, so he couldn’t try to see what she was doing. For once though, he didn’t mind not being able to keep an eye on someone. He trusted her.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“Nothing on his location yet?”

Journey shook her head. “None. You don’t think he might’ve… ya know…”

“I really hope not…” Turk responded with a sigh. “But, knowing him, he probably did.”

“You really think 8-Ball went to face the threat alone?” Outcast inquired worriedly.

“It’s possible, but right now, I want to at least _try_ to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

“You can try,” Journey began with a little chuckle, “but it’s not gonna pay off. He always proves us wrong.”

“What about Cameo?” The fisherwoman asked. “She’s been gone all day when she said she was just going to the Apple Orchard and maybe The Gilded Lady.”

Turk opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, he noticed something in the distance. Something blue.

“What the?”

With his teammates behind him, the fisherman started heading for the blue object. He realized that it was getting closer and was moving in their direction fast. Pulling out his Scar, he was prepared to stand his ground in case it proved to be a threat, but as it got closer, he realized it was carrying something on its back.

“What’s it carrying, Turk?”

“Outcast, do I look like I have eagle eyes?”

“…-up! Glup glup!”

“Hold on…” Journey leaned forward a bit while she squinted her eyes. “I think that’s… _OH SHIT! THAT’S CAMEO ON ITS BACK!_ ”

“ _WHAT?!_ ”

The trio ran towards the pair to check on the fashionista, who had been riding piggyback. She had her head resting on the blue Sludge’s right shoulder while her left arm was draped over his left shoulder. Her visor was nowhere in sight and her clothes were dirty and slightly tattered. She looked like she was either asleep or unconscious.

“Cameo!”

Upon hearing her name, the fashionista groaned as she opened an eye.

“Guys?…”

The blob crouched down to let her off safely. 

“Glup glup?”

“I’d rather not… It hurts to move right now…”

“Cameo,” Turk began worriedly, “ _what happened?_ ”

The trio listened as Cameo began to explain what had happened, from the moment she noticed the blue Sludge running away from the group chasing him to how he fought the same group in order to protect her from being killed in her disoriented state.

“Another lookalike?…” The fisherman mused to himself. “Well… Regardless of that fact, I’m glad you’re more or less alright.”

“Glup glup.” The Sludge agreed with a smile.

“So,” Journey began, “what are we gonna do about this… blue Sludge?”

“I was hoping we could keep him…” The fashionista admitted.

Outcast shrugged. “I don’t see why we can’t. He’d be a good source of information on what’s going on. Plus, he _did_ risk his own safety to save you instead of leaving you to die.”

“We’ll have to take it up with the boss first.” Turk reminded his team.

At that moment, the fisherman’s earpiece began beeping. While he turned to answer it, the women turned their attention back to the blob.

Journey cleared her throat. “Sooo Sludge-”

“Glup glup glup…” He interrupted uncomfortably.

“Your name’s not Sludge?”

“Probably because that woman had called him “defective” back at Frenzy…”

“And probably because he’s made of Slurp.” Outcast added.

The pink haired woman looked at the blue blob and gave him a small smile. “Well then, I guess we’re gonna have to give you a new name.”

“Ho-Hold on,” Turk spoke up, “slow down, Bushranger. What happened? What’s going on? What-… Wait, **_what?_ **”

The group turned to look at him.

“Where is he now?! … And is he going to be okay?! … Okay, okay… Alright, I get it… Look, I trust Rem’s capabilities, but we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Turk, what’s going on?” The fisherwoman inquired as he hung up.

“Bushranger brought 8-Ball back to the barracks. He was beaten very badly. Eights _did_ go to fight his lookalike alone!”

“ _What?!_ Is he gonna be okay?!”

“Yeah, I think so. Bush got him to Rem, but we need to get back now.”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“He’s going to be fine.”

Turk let out a sigh of relief at the news. Good. He didn’t lose any of his friends today, but it was pretty damn close.

“That’s good to hear… What injuries did he sustain?”

“Multiple lacerations on his body, a sprained wrist, a sprained ankle, and a few cracked ribs. I want to hold on to him for about 10 days to make sure he really doesn’t have a concussion as symptoms usually occur within the first 7 to 10 days. Even if I can’t, he’s certainly not ready to go back out onto the field any time soon.”

He nodded in understanding. “And Cameo?”

“Luckily for her, all I found were scraped knees, scraped elbows, and bruised ribs. I’ve patched up her knees and elbows and prescribed her some medication for the pain her bruised ribs will cause her. It seems she was far enough away from the blast to avoid major injuries.”

“Good… Can I see 8-Ball?” Turk asked.

Remedy hummed in thought for a bit. “Probably not. I understand you want to check on him, but I had to take his helmet off to check for injuries and we promised him we’d respect his privacy.”

The EGO leader had a look of disappointment before he sighed and nodded.

“If you say so, Rem. I’d say “take good care of him”, but I know it’s not necessary since you’ll do that anyways.”

The medic smiled at him. “Always.”

“Hey guys,” Journey said as she walked up to them, “good news. Midas approved of keeping the blob. And even better news, his name is now Rippley.”

“That’s good to hear, but why “Rippley”?” Turk questioned with an eyebrow raised.

“Because Cameo ripped her leggings and the name just came to her because of it.”

“Of course it did.”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“I know that look, my student.”

No response.

“You are concerned about his well being. You wished to attempt to not be as involved as you once were, did you not?”

“I know…”

“You know you cannot help everyone.”

“But that doesn’t mean I can’t try, right? What if he does have a concussion? Wouldn’t that affect him?”

“He is in the care of a competent medic. You must lay your trust in her abilities.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust her… I just… I can’t watch someone lose a person they care about again…”

A sigh was let out.

“Wait a few days.”

“What?”

“We will wait a few days before we personally check on him. In person.”

“Really?! We can?!”

“I know this will not leave your mind until you are certain that he will be fine. It will affect your ability to focus on your duties, so in a few days, we will visit him and determine if our intervention is required.”

An excited squeal echoed throughout the In-Between.

“Thank you so much!”

“You are welcome. Now come. Today, we are further developing your defensive capabilities.”

“Yes sir!”


	3. Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for both sides meet some new faces.

Turk flopped down in his chair with an exhausted sigh. “That was too close for comfort.”

“ _Way_ too close.” Journey agreed as she set her rocket launcher down.

“Glup glup!”

“You have a strange taste in excitement, Rippley.” The mountain climber commented.

Cameo walked by with a grin on her face. “C’mon! You can’t tell me that your heart wasn’t racing throughout that whole thing! I’m _still_ shaking from the excitement! I saw that smug grin on your face as we made our escape, Turk!”

“Sometimes I worry that you’ll become an adrenaline junky, Cameo…” Remedy sighed as she sat down.

The team had just escaped another encounter with Sludge and the woman who was leading them. According to Rippley, the woman’s name was Toxin and had apparently been the one who created the blobs to begin with. They were going to check out a bunker he knew the boss was keeping an eye on when they were spotted. Almost immediately, Toxin had her creations swarming the outnumbered team. Bullets and rockets rained down hard on EGO as they attempted to flee. During the chaos, one of their boats had been destroyed, forcing Cameo to ride on the front of the only one that remained. They barely managed to escape and nearly lost Rippley as the boat boosted off the Hydro 16 dam.

“Look,” Turk began as he begrudgingly stood back up, “let’s just get the report over with before we take a breather. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

“I wouldn’t count on that.”

The team turned towards the entrance to find Outcast leaning against the door. She had been asked to stay behind to keep an eye on 8-Ball while they were out.

“What do you mean?” The fisherman asked.

She raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you remember? Some of us have to head over to the island offshore to check on our guests tomorrow.”

The EGO leader groaned as he buried his face into his hand. “Mireda… I forgot about that… Fine, we’ll call a rain check on the bunker… Who wants to go with me?”

“Hey, I never said you had to go.”

“I know, but I think Midas would prefer it if I did…”

“Glup glup?” Rippley questioned with a confused look.

“We found some people on the island that had apparently come from another dimension,” Cameo explained, “and we moved them to an island offshore. I’ll tag along with you. Maybe I’ll see something that I can put on the internet again.”

“I think I’ll pass.” Journey said as she stretched.

Rem gave the bearded man a sympathetic look. “Under normal circumstances, I would. However, I need to check on Eights for any symptoms of a concussion tomorrow.”

“I’ll tag along.” Outcast responded to her fellow fisherman with a shrug. “I’ve got nothing better to do than look for more bait.”

“Glup glup! Glup glup!” The blue blob exclaimed excitedly.

“Alright…” Turk sighed. “Now that that’s decided, I’ve got a report to work on.”

“Don’t stay up too late. Again.” The medic reminded him with a sigh.

“You know you don’t have to say that as if I never sleep.”

“Turk, you’re a workaholic. Two nights ago, I found you asleep at your desk because you were so focused on making that report thorough.”

Turk said nothing. He just turned around and walked away.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


The squad of EGO agents watched as a mocha colored dog ran by with John close behind him.

“ _Damnit Mocha, stop running!_ ” He shouted at the fleeing dog. “ _You can’t always run from bathtime!_ ”

Turk sighed to himself. “Let’s get this over with…”

“I told them you were coming, but some didn’t believe me.”

The agents jumped when they realized that Cuddle Team Leader was now standing next to them. None of them had heard her approaching them.

“Holy shit, where’d you come from?!” Outcast asked, startled.

The pink bear said nothing as she stared at them for a few moments before she let out a giggle. “Everywhere and nowhere.”

**_“FUCK YOU, YA FUCKING AGENT BITCH!”_ **

**_“SAY THAT AGAIN TO MY FACE, YOU BLOODTHIRSTY RED PIECE OF SHIT!”_ **

“Oh no.” Cuddles commented as she looked in the direction of the shouting before running off with the EGO team close behind her. 

When they reached where the shouting match was coming from, they saw Black Knight and Ultima Knight holding back Red Knight from charging at Rook, who was being restrained by Sledgehammer and Ragnarok. Ramirez stood between the shouting women as she tried to keep the peace.

“I understand that you’re both on edge from being stuck here for 10 days straight, but there’s no need to-”

**_“TAKE BACK WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT MY PROFESSION!”_ ** Rook demanded.

**_“FUCK OFF, DESK JOCKEY!”_ ** Red Knight spat back.

**_“I’M A SECRET AGENT NOW, NOT A DESK JOCKEY!”_ **

“Oh my fucking God…” Ramirez groaned before spotting the EGO agents. “Oh, hey guys. Sorry you had to see this, I’m trying to get it under control.”

“What the hell is going on here?” Turk questioned.

“Because you guys dumped us here with no way of getting back to the main island, we’ve been losing our minds from not having anything to do!” Black Knight explained, frustrated.

Outcast noticed Ark just watching the whole thing while she casually drank a soda. Walking over to her, she was about to ask why she wasn’t trying to help Ramirez stop what was going when the angel just lifted a finger at her as she took another drink. When she was done, she looked at the fisherwoman.

“If you’re about to ask why I’m not stopping this because I’m an angel, keep in mind that not all angels are actually good and that Lucifer himself was once an angel.” Ark explained before shrugging. “Besides, it’s just a fight between acquaintances. They’ll work it out.”

With that, the angel turned to walk away, knocking off Outcast’s hat with her wings in the process.

“Hey!” She shouted as she scrambled to catch it.

“Whoops.”

“Some of us are still mad at you for the tear gas.” Ramirez reminded her with a sigh.

“Yo dawg, wat da hell is dat?” Aura asked, pointing at Rippley.

“It looks weird.” Rex commented in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Glup glup…” Rippley looked down with a sad expression.

“I think he looks cool!” Brite Bomber spoke up enthusiastically.

“ _For your information_ ,” Cameo began in an insulted tone, “his name is Rippley and he is _quite_ handsome, thank you very much!”

“He still looks weird.”

“Well look at the pot calling the kettle black, Rex!” Tricera Ops chimed in with a laugh. “Who are we to judge? Do you not see how many of us look like the Defaults? The fact that Jonesy and Bunker Jonesy are two different people? How can you consider the walking blue blob weird when we have Peely and Tender Defender? Or what about these guys?”

She motioned towards the Tomatohead standing next to her while he held out a tomato to her. Behind the one cult member was a line of the rest of his cult, each holding a tomato in the exact same pose.

“Would you care for a tomato, sister?”

“No.”

The next Tomatohead stepped forward while the first walked away.

“Would you care for a tomato, sister?”

“ _No._ ”

The next one stepped forward.

“Would yo-”

“ALRIGHT YOU TOMATO FUCKERS!”

Everyone turned around to see a very irritated Jonesy. In his hand was a bag of tomatoes, a bag that he held up.

“Fess up! Which one of you replaced my marshmallows with tomatoes?!” The soldier groaned when each of the cult members pointed at each other. “Look, if you confess to switching out my marshmallows, I’ll let you explain why we should join the Tomatoheads.”

Before anyone could protest, a Tomatohead stepped forward.

“It was I, dear Jonesy, who replaced those sugar filled nothings with the blessed fruit. We are children of the sauce. All the answers lay within the sauce. By becoming one of us, your worries wash away like the sacred juice upon your skin. Will you join us, brother?”

“No.” He responded irritably. “I want my damn marshmallows.”

Another Tomatohead walked over to him holding a plate of marshmallows. Instead of taking them, however, Jonesy made an unsure face before he took a few steps back.

“You’re not gonna take them?” Turk asked.

“If it were from anyone else, yes. But since they’re from one of them, I think I’d rather wait to buy more. They probably hid tomato slices in them anyways!”

The Tomatohead quickly turned around and walked away with the rest of his cult members. As they did, Turk noticed how red the soldier’s eyes and face were. He knew from experience that those were sometimes signs that someone had been crying. But before he could ask, he noticed him looking at Rippley.

“O-Oh uh, this is our newest member, Rippley.” The fisherman explained.

Jonesy was silent for a few moments before he let out a big grin and ran over to stand in front of the blob. “Dude, that’s so cool! He looks like he’s made of Slurp! How awesome is that?! Hey man, my name’s Jonesy! Sorry you had to be introduced to us in such a way, but hey, it could always be worse eh?”

Rippley watched as Jonesy held out his hand before he smiled back brightly as he grabbed it with his own to shake.

“Glup glup! Glup glup glup!”

“Sorry, Rippley. I can’t understand what you just said.”

“He says, “Hello Jonesy! Your pleasant greeting is greatly appreciated!”” Cameo explained.

“You guys can understand him?” Jonesy asked in amazement.

“Yep.”

“That’s pretty cool!”

With Cameo acting as a translator, the two engaged in a lengthy conversation with big smiles on their faces. Their topics ranged from questions about Rippley and how he was enjoying the island to questions about Jonesy and his old life on Athena. While the fact both were already getting along well made him smile, Turk couldn’t help but notice how much the blonde held back a flinch at the questions about his old island. He could tell that something was on his mind. And given the worried looks from most of the people around them, he knew that they could also tell.

“Glup glup! Glup glup glup glup! Glup glup glup!” Rippley exclaimed happily.

Cameo paused. “Are you sure you wanna include that first part?”

“Glup!”

“What?” Jonesy asked. “What did he say?”

“He said… “You with the chiseled chin! Our conversation has been truly wonderful! I’d enjoy talking with you again!””

The soldier blinked a few times in confusion before he smiled. “Well… Ok then! First time I’ve been told that.”

“Hey,” Turk chimed in, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but… I have to ask this. Jonesy?”

“Yeah?”

“Have… Have you been crying?”

He frowned when he saw him stiffen up.

“I… Why do you ask?”

“Your eyes are red and puffy and your face is flushed red. In my experience, those usually mean that someone’s been crying. I don’t mean to try to intrude on anyone’s personal life, but-”

“I-I’ll see you guys later, kay?” Jonesy interrupted with a slight tremble in his voice before he turned around and quickly walked away, pushing past anyone who tried to stop him.

Turk took a few steps after him before Outcast grabbed his arm to stop her friend. “Outcast, why-”

“Turk, he’s not ready…” She explained.

“I…” He looked in the direction Jonesy took off. “I guess not… Let’s go back. I think we’re done here.”

“Turk…” Ramirez called out. “Thank you… for your concern about him. He’s… He hasn’t really talked to us about what’s happened. Most of us are really worried about him.”

“… You’re welcome…” 

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Remedy yawned and rubbed her eyes tiredly as she got out of bed to check on 8-Ball. The day had been a long one. After the squad got back from checking on the Athena residents, Turk had been bothered by how closed off Jonesy was. The medic did her best to reassure him that he was still grieving the loss of both his home and his friends, but it didn’t seem to help ease his mind. The good thing that had come out of the day was the fact that Rem has yet to find any symptoms of a concussion in Eights. He wasn’t cleared for field duty just yet, but it was something to keep her spirits up.

She just sort of hoped to see a bit more appreciation from the ninja. She’s accepted that he was a man of few words, but now that she could see his face, he didn’t seem to show many emotions. Although, she had to admit that it was a pretty handsome face. Brown eyes and messy black hair suited him in her opinion.

“Stop thinking about that, Remedy!” She muttered to herself as she shook her head to rid herself of the thought. When she got closer to the barrack 8-Ball was in, she noticed that there was a blue glow emitting out from underneath the door. “What the?…”

Upon getting even closer, the medic realized she could hear voices coming from the other side of the door. Without a second to spare, she quietly picked up a nearby pistol and slowly opened the door to peek inside.

There were two people standing by 8-Ball’s bedside looking down at him. One was a young woman with blue and purple skin with what looked like glowing blue veins on her arms, black and purple hair in a ponytail over her left shoulder, a purple tank top with a particle effect and crystal like designs, purple pants with the same crystal like designs on the left side, and what appeared to be a pair of glowing blue broken butterfly wings on her back. The other was a male wearing a pinkish-purple jacket, some kind of head piece that she couldn’t see the full detail of since his back was facing her, and a crystal that looked like the broken top of a staff with smaller crystals floating around it on his back.

“So,” the young woman began, “will he be alright? Is he gonna heal properly?”

Remedy stepped in silently with the pistol in hand as the man lifted his hand towards her sleeping teammate. She noticed his hand beginning to glow gently as it hovered over him, a glow that ended almost as fast as it had begun.

“Yes.” He stated calmly. “He will be fine. His wounds have been healing properly and I do not detect any signs of a concussion in him. As I said, he has been in the care of a competent medic.”

The woman breathed out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad to hear that…”

“You become attached too easily. He is also one of the ones that ambushed your friends.”

“You worry too much. And hey, no one’s perfect. It was a misunderstanding anyways.”

For a few moments, both fell silent as they stared down at the sleeping ninja.

“It seems we have an uninvited guest.” The man commented.

The woman giggled. “I know. I heard her open the door and walk in. We’re just visiting.”

“Visiting hours have been over for a few hours now!” Remedy informed them while aiming her pistol at the pair. “Identify yourselves or I won’t be afraid to shoot!”

Unfazed, both turned around. The woman had bright blue eyes that seemed to glow in the middle with the same blue vein-like details under her eyes as well as matching blue lips while the man’s head piece greatly resembled an owl. His glowing blue eyes bore into the cautious medic.

“Don’t worry, dear. We’re not going to hurt him.” The woman reassured with a kind smile. “Think of us as allies for the Athena residents. We just wanted to check on him, make sure he’s going to be fine. Ya know, you’re a really good medic. And don’t be fooled, he really does appreciate what you’ve been doing for him. He just doesn’t tell you.”

“That is not your information to share, my student.”

“I figured it’d be a nice exchange for arriving after visiting hours.”

8-Ball suddenly groaned as he began to stir. The woman’s glowing wings were now shining in his face.

“It seems we have overstayed our welcome.” The man told his student. “We must go.”

“Awww! Already?” She groaned as her mentor opened a rift to leave. She noticed Eights sit up almost immediately at the sound, but was trying to rub away the blurriness in his eyes. “See you again someday!”

With that, both entered the rift, which closed once both were through, leaving the stunned medic and sleepily confused ninja behind.

8-Ball, in his half asleep state, looked over at his stunned teammate. “Did something happen in my sleep?”

“You… You had some late visitors…” Remedy tried her best to explain.

Eights hummed sleepily before he laid back down and pulled the covers over his head. He trusted her to protect him.

Rem made a mental note at how cute she found that action. Her cheeks flushed at the realization of what she just thought.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“Something happened last night, right?”

Remedy looked up from her cup of coffee to stare at Journey. “Was it that obvious?”

“I heard something last night at 8-Ball’s barrack. Twice.”

Turk raised an eyebrow at the medic. “You didn’t think to tell me?”

“It was late. Besides, I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. Probably.”

“Well, what happened?” The fisherman asked as he took a sip of his coffee.

“8-Ball had some very unusual visitors last night. They were very unorthodox…”

“How so?”

Remedy explained what she saw, how they acted, and even the abilities one of them displayed.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by their association with the Athena residents.” Outcast said to herself.

“You saw Dream and Luminos?”

The team looked up and were surprised to see Ark and Malice flying down to them.

“Why are you guys here?” Turk inquired.

“Red Knight and Rook are still arguing, so we left to get some peace and quiet.” Ark explained.

"I actually came for free food." Malice said with a shrug.

“Seriously though, you saw Dream and Luminos?" The angel asked the medic. "We haven’t seen either of them since we first got here.”

“Uh… yeah?”

“Who are they?” Journey questioned.

“They can be considered something like gods or some shit like that.” Malice said as she placed her hands on her hips. “Dream is the youngest, so she has an endearing naivety to her, but one thing’s for certain; Luminos wouldn’t have let her get so close to someone if he thought they were a threat.”

Ark watched the EGO team look at each other surprised. Neither side had spent enough time with each other to build too much trust, but the previous day had gotten her thinking. She could tell that Turk’s concern for Jonesy was genuine despite not knowing him very well. Now that she knew Dream and Luminos had appeared to Remedy, she had really begun to think. 

If Luminos didn’t view them as a threat, had they been too quick to judge them?


	4. From vaulted to unvaulted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone can tell that Jonesy has been in pain since the news that they've lost some of his closest friends, but he hasn't been willing to talk about it. Keeping things inside, however, isn't always as easy as it's made out to be. Especially when someone refuses to watch you suffer in silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of an update:
> 
> In order to avoid any possible confusion between when someone's shouting at the top of their lungs and when Jonesy hears the voice in his head, the voice will now be underlined along with being bold and italicized so people can tell the difference more easily. Similarly, dialogue heard through a phone or an earpiece will also be underlined along with being italicized to differentiate between shouting/emphasizing and talking through a device.

8-Ball watched Remedy carefully unwrap the elastic bandage around his wrist before moving on to the one around his ankle. It had taken a few weeks, but she had finally determined that it was safe for him to be up and moving. He still had to take it easy for a while before she could clear him for field duties.

“I think Turk and Journey are taking Rippley out to see the island today.” The medic said as she finished unwrapping the ninja’s ankle. “Why not join them? I know you’ve probably been bored laying around doing nothing. It’ll be good to stretch your legs and get some fresh air after being bedridden for so long.”

When she didn’t get an immediate response, she looked up to find him just staring at her. He’d been doing that for some time now, but this one felt different. It was almost as if he was-…

Oh wait.

“Riiiight. Your helmet. Don’t worry, I thought this through.” Standing up, Remedy set the elastic wraps aside before reaching for something that was out of 8-Ball’s view. Smiling, she held up both his helmet and his breastplate armor to show that both had been repaired. “I figured you’d want to get moving as soon as you could, so I requested for your damaged gear to be fixed a little after the day you were injured. Plus, I know you’d rather keep the amount of people who’ve seen your face to a minimum.”

If he were to be honest, 8-Ball found that he wouldn’t have minded not being able to leave the barrack if it meant she kept visiting him. However, he’d rather keep that information to himself for the time being until he figured out why.

“So, will you be joining them? As I’ve said, it’ll be good to get out after being bedridden for so long.”

Taking his helmet and armor, he put both back on before he nodded. He was positive his heart skipped a beat at the smile his response elicited.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“It’s good to see you out and about, Eights.” Turk said with a smile.

The ninja nodded in response.

“Even if you’re more of the silent type, it just wasn’t the same without you man.”

8-Ball gave his leader another nod.

Remedy had been right in her assessment. It felt so good to be walking around Apollo with his team again. They had gone fishing via Turk’s insistence, showed Rippley around in the locations of the island, and were currently walking up a hill since Journey deemed it fair to do something she wanted.

When they got to the top, they looked down at the amazing view in front of them. For a few moments, they felt at peace as they took it all in.

Until they heard the honks of a bus coming from behind them.

Turk and Journey immediately looked at each other in confusion before turning around to see what made the sound. Their jaws dropped when they saw the source.

A bright blue bus attached to a weather balloon was flying towards the island. As it got closer, they could faintly see flashing party lights through the window.

What they couldn’t see was that inside the bus, a hundred residents of Athena were cheering each other on as they danced together, excited to be back inside the bus at last. A chorus of “thank you bus driver” rang out as they prepared to jump out. Upon seeing his destination, Jonesy stood up, ran to the back exit, and excitedly leapt out with a cheerful shout.

_“GO, GO, GO!”_ Someone shouted behind him as more jumped out of the bus.

As his friends skydived around him in different directions, the blonde took a moment to slowly descend. For the first time in what felt like years, he felt something akin to the feeling of freedom. His troubles and worries seemed to just fly away as he felt the wind against his face.

“ _Hey Jonesy,_ ” Banshee called out above him, “ _look who else is here!_ ”

Following where she was pointing, he saw Turk, Journey, 8-Ball, and Rippley watching them skydive. He smiled before looking back at his squad mates.

“ _You guys go on ahead! I’m gonna go say hi!_ ” He shouted before pulling out his glider and gliding towards EGO.

Banshee looked back at Ramirez and Hector, a new recruit for the Defaults, before they headed for Lazy Lake. They had something to do anyway.

“Hey guys!” Jonesy exclaimed as he landed in front of them with a laugh. “Did you _see_ that?! The Battle Bus and the bus driver are back! We thought they were gone forever until this morning! Obviously, we just _had_ to take another ride!”

“I… You… Just…” Turk sputtered out as he desperately tried to find the right words to say.

“I’ve never seen him so lost.” Journey laughed. “How does that thing work though?”

“Weather balloon.”

“That doesn’t exactly-”

_“I_ SO _WANNA RIDE THAT THING!”_ Cameo squealed from the bottom of the hill.

Turk snapped out of his confusion and looked down at her. _“When did you even get here?”_

_“I was shopping!”_

_“Sorry, Cameo,”_ Jonesy began with a laugh, _“but you can’t ride it without a glider?”_

_“A glider?”_

The blonde blinked a few times. They clearly have a lot to learn about them.

“You sure this is safe?” Turk inquired. “What’s this even for?”

“Yeah, it’s totally safe.”

At that moment, Raven suddenly landed next to them before he accidentally hopped off the hill due to his momentum. The group watched as he frantically flailed before hitting the ground and collapsing to his hands and knees.

_“I-I’m okay!…”_ He called out painfully.

“Safe huh?”

Jonesy just shrugged. “We call that the bunny hop. If you’re not careful when doing it, you’ll knock yourself.”

“Knock?”

“Yeah. We’re doing Squads. Get in a team of at least 4 and fight to be the last squad standing. When you’re eliminated, you’re sent back to Spawn Island.”

Turk raised an eyebrow at him. “Spawn Island? Is that what you’re calling where we moved you?”

“Yep!” The blonde grinned brightly at him. “If you want, I’d be happy to show you and your team what we do. Who knows, it may come in handy.”

The fisherman looked at his team before looking back at him and shaking his head. “Thanks, but I think we’ll pass. Were you and your friends gonna do something in Lazy? They seemed set on going over there.”

“Lazy?” The soldier asked before his eyes widened. “Oh shit, Lazy Lake! I forgot we were going to grab something we left there!”

“What was it?” The EGO leader asked.

“It’s… better if you didn’t know. I guess I got a little sidetracked. I just…” He trailed off as he turned to look up at the sky. “When I’m in the air, it’s almost as if everything just… disappears. I get to feel a sense of… freedom… a sense of peace…”

The agents watched as the soldier became silent while squeezing his hands into fists and looking straight up. They heard a shudder escape from his lips as he began trembling. 

He was trying his best to keep himself from crying.

Turk stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey… If… If you want to talk-”

“N-No, no. I’m-” Jonesy cut himself off as he desperately tried to wipe away the tears in his eyes. “I’m fine… I just… I want to go home… I want…”

The leader didn’t need him to finish to know what else he wanted. He gave his shoulder a quick squeeze.

“Jonesy-”

“I need to go…” He interrupted as he pulled away from the fisherman. “Ramirez and the others are going to need help getting what we left behind…”

Turk watched as Jonesy began walking away. 

“W-We’re gonna be checking in on you guys again tomorrow!” 

Both his teammates and the soldier looked at him confused.

“You just checked on us a couple days ago…”

“It… It was a last second update!”

He didn’t know why he was doing this, but a part of him couldn’t stand to see him so upset.

“Well… Ok then… See you guys tomorrow, I guess…”

“Yeah…”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


_“Why are we doing this, Turk?”_ Outcast asked her friend while he drove the squad to Spawn Island. _“We know you made this up. So why?”_

He didn’t answer. What _could_ he say when _he_ didn’t even know why? He was worried, yes, but he didn’t know him that well.

_“Well, we’re already on our way,”_ Remedy began, _“so let’s just get this over with!”_

8-Ball nodded in agreement.

Turk was going over all the questions he wanted to ask Jonesy when he was forced out of his thoughts by the sound of multiple explosions. Looking up, he saw many of Jonesy’s people running around screaming while others chased after them.

**_“CALM DOWN, IT’S DEAD!”_ **

_“What the hell?”_ The fisherman said to himself.

After parking the boat, the squad ran past the panicking people and the ones chasing them and headed towards the source of the explosions. What they found made them pause.

Raptor was throwing as many grenades at a blackened crater as he could while others around him were shouting at him.

**_“RAPTOR, THAT’S ENOUGH!”_ **

**_“I HAVE TO MAKE SURE IT’S DEAD!”_ **

**_“IT_ ** **IS** **_DEAD!”_ **

**_“I HAVE TO DOUBLE CHECK!”_ **

**_“RAPTOR, YOU ALREADY “MADE SURE” MORE TIMES THAN I CAN COUNT! DAMNIT, PUT DOWN THE ROCKET LAUNCHER!”_ **

**_“OH MY FUCKING GOD, GIMME THE FUCKING THING!”_ ** Jonesy screamed in absolute frustration before attempting to take the rocket launcher away.

**_“NO! NO!”_ ** Raptor held on to it tightly as the blonde tried to pull it out of his hands.

**_“WE BROKE THE FUCKING EGG! IT! IS! DEAD!”_ **

**_“YOU DON’T KNO-”_ **

Before the pilot could finish his sentence, the soldier had suddenly punched him hard enough to knock him to the ground. He threw the rocket launcher to the ground before his hands flew into his hair. He began pacing as he tried to take deep breaths, but when he saw EGO watching him, he froze.

“Ah fuck!” He groaned as he tried to hide his face in his hands. After a few moments, he threw his hands up. “Ya know what? Fuck this. You guys can explain this shit. I’m out of here.”

Jonesy turned around and stormed off. No one tried to stop him this time. It was clear he wasn’t in a good mood.

“What… What the _hell_ is going on here?” Turk asked.

He looked around to see that most of the people who were panicking had either been caught and restrained or were being calmed down. The whole place was in chaos.

Ramirez sighed as she approached the squad. “I can’t tell you, but I can show you.”

“Show us what?” Outcast inquired.

“You’ll have to see for yourself. Follow me.”

Ramirez led the agents to what looked like a small building that was being guarded by a bearded man with a scar on his right eye and dressed in a black suit leaning against the door. He looked up at them with a bored expression.

“You’re gonna show it to them?” He questioned.

“Yeah… We kinda have to at this point.”

“Whatever.”

He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. Stepping out of their way, he leaned against the side of the building while he waited for them to go in.

“Alright, Reaper. You already know what to do once we go in.” Ramirez told him as she led the hesitant agents through the door.

“Yeah, yeah, lock the door behind you and don’t let anyone in unless it’s an emergency.” Reaper responded with a roll of his eyes before he closed and locked the door behind them.

Ramirez flipped the light switch before the door closed, turning on a long row of lights that led down a flight of stairs.

Turk looked at the leader suspiciously. “Where are you taking us?”

“Trust me,” she began with a sigh, “this will make a lot of sense once you see what we have down here.”

The EGO agents cautiously followed her down the stairs. When they reached the bottom, they saw her standing in front of what looked like a cell.

“There’s what caused the chaos you saw.” She told them while pointing inside the cell as the lights flickered above her.

Looking past the bars, the squad was horrified to see a tall and thin humanoid creature chained to the wall behind it. When it realized that there were people looking at it, it lunged at them before being jerked to a stop in front of the bars. Its face unfurled like a flower, revealing a large mouth lined with teeth as it began shrieking at the people watching it.

_“What the hell is that?!”_ Remedy shrieked from behind 8-Ball.

“The Demogorgon.” Ramirez explained. “On our old island, these things were everywhere. It was worse in our Retail Row. There were these monsters that would appear there, monsters that Demogorgons could blend in with. It got even more worse when these things got a hold of snipers. A fucking nightmare. Took us forever to kill most of them.”

“So why do you have one left?!” Outcast asked from a few steps up.

“We were hoping to study it. We try to keep its population to just one, but sometimes, we find the occasional egg. Its name in and of itself is taboo, so we can only refer to it as “the D word”. Saying it causes an immediate wave of fear and panic in most of my people, the eggs even more so.”

Before anyone could say anything else, they heard the door open followed by quick steps heading downstairs.

“Hey Ramirez!”

“Lynx?”

The artist hopped over the last few stairs to reach the leader faster.

“We thought you should know that Jonesy just left the island.”

Ramirez’s eyes widened. “He just what?”

“He _left_.” Lynx repeated. “Grabbed a fishing pole, got in a motorboat, and just drove off.”

“Well, did he say when he was coming back?”

“No, only for us to not follow him.”

“Shit. Turk, I need to borrow your boat so I can-”

“I’ll get him.” Turk interrupted.

Everyone fell silent and just stared at him.

“I’m sorry, you’ll _what_?” Outcast asked.

“I’ll get him.”

“But why?”

The fisherman looked down as he tried to think of what to say. Him and Jonesy didn’t know each other, so why was he so keen on trying to help him?

Ramirez sighed. “Look, I don’t care who ends up getting him. Just bring him back.”

He nodded before turning to his fishing buddy.

“Outcast. Come with me. I have an idea.”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Jonesy sat in the back of his boat silently as he stared at the fishing pole he was holding. Resting his face on his free hand, he questioned why he was even there. What did he hope to find out here?

**_“ You’re pathetic and they know it. Now EGO has seen your bad side. Maybe they’ll never want to talk with you again after today.”_ **

He flinched at what the voice in his head had said. What if he was right? What if they didn’t want to talk to him again after what he did to Raptor?

**_“You’re weak. You always have been.”_ **

Jonesy snapped back to reality when he heard another motorboat heading towards him. He looked up in time to see Outcast bring the boat to a stop next to his. Turk was sitting in the back.

The soldier looked down, not wanting to meet their gaze. “Hey…”

“Hey… Room for one more?”

He looked back up to see the fisherman holding up his own fishing pole questioningly and patiently waiting for an answer.

**_“You’ll just end up alone.”_ **

“Um… Sure…” Jonesy nodded as he pulled his legs in to give him room. “I… I don’t think I want to be alone right now…”

Carefully, Turk stepped into the soldier’s boat from his own with his fishing pole in hand. “Thanks, Outcast. Think you can go back to Spawn Island and help them clean up?”

“Sure, I can do that.” She responded with a shrug.

The EGO leader watched as his friend turned their boat around and drove off. Turning his attention back to the blonde next to him, he saw that he was looking anywhere but at him. An awkward silence fell between them, something the fisherman wasn’t too sure he liked from the normally talkative man. He noticed him messing with the fish hook on his fishing pole.

“Don’t do that.” Turk told him while pulling his hand away from the hook. He frowned when he pulled his hand out of his grip. “… Do you wanna talk about it?…”

Jonesy glanced at him.

“I’m… I’m sorry… that you had to see that… I-I didn’t mean to lash out the way I did, I just…”

He trailed off as his eyes squeezed shut while looking up.

_Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t-_

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

“The friends you lost…” Turk gave the soldier a sympathetic look when he saw him flinch. “What were they like?”

“I…”

**_“Weak. Pathetic.”_ **

“If you don’t want to tell me, that’s alright. I’ll understand.”

Jonesy looked at the fisherman and saw both genuine concern and patience directed towards him. Taking a deep breath, he gradually began recounting stories of his friends Headhunter, Wildcat, Spitfire, Hawk, and Renegade. As he talked, it felt like a weight was being lifted off his shoulders. This encouraged him to keep talking. He spoke of how excited they were when they realized they could ride rockets (much to Turk’s bewilderment), the hilarity of seeing Headhunter push a shopping cart that Wildcat was in down a hill and laughing with her as both were sent flying, the time him and Spitfire managed to clutch a win together in a Duos game, laughing when a Baller Hawk was in had gotten stuck inside a building that he was desperately trying to escape, running from Guided Missiles with Renegade, and many, many more fond memories he made with them.

“They sound like good people.” Turk commented with a sympathetic smile.

“Yeah… They were…” Jonesy agreed mournfully. He could feel the prick of tears in his eyes.

He felt the hand on his shoulder give it a quick squeeze.

“Jonesy, I’m so sorry… If anything happened to my friends, I know I’d be as devastated as you are… But you know, it’s ok to cry…”

“I-I don’t-”

“I know you’re in pain. You’re good at trying to hide it, but the cracks in your facade appear very easily. Your friends are worried about you…”

“My friends…”

“And I’m worried too.” Turk admitted.

Jonesy looked up at the fisherman. 

He was worried about him? A total stranger?

**_“ Perhaps it’s just pity. Who wouldn’t pity you?”_ **

“Jonesy… It’s ok to cry…”

He felt a tear roll down his cheek. 

“I-I… I…”

“It’s alright… Let it out…”

Another tear fell. Then another. And another.

Before he knew it, Turk was almost knocked over by Jonesy suddenly throwing himself into his arms, burying his face into his shoulder and clinging to him as if his life depended on it. He stiffened up from the sudden contact, but he didn’t push him away. He could hear the blonde’s muffled bawling and felt his trembling from how hard he cried. As the fabric on his shoulder became more and more soaked with tears, he gradually relaxed before finally wrapping his arms around the crying soldier.

Jonesy needed this.

“It’s ok… It’s ok…” Turk reassured. “I’m here, Jonesy… I'm here… Just let it out…”

_“I-IT’S ALL MY FAULT!!”_ Jonesy wailed. _“IF I HAD ONLY BEEN BETTER, I-IF I HAD O-ONLY BEEN STRONGER, THEN THEY WOULDN’T BE G-G-GONE!!”_

“Jonesy, you can’t blame yourself for what happened!”

“ _IT-!!…_ I-It-…”

“You couldn’t have-”

**_“I-IT SHOULD’VE BEEN ME!!!”_ **

Turk froze at those words.

**_“I-”_ **

Jonesy jumped when Turk suddenly pushed him away and held him by his shoulders, looking him directly in the eyes.

“Don’t _ever_ say that! I may not understand what happened exactly, but I can tell you it was never your fault! You may be clumsy and goofy, but I _know_ you’re a good person!”

The soldier said nothing. He just stared at him, completely caught off guard.

“ _Maldito infierno_ … Why haven’t you told anyone about this?”

“I…” Jonesy tried to wipe his tears away. “I-I didn’t want to be a b-burden… I j-just thought… it’d b-be easier for everyone…”

“Jonesy, you’re not a burden. You’ve been worrying those who care about you. Keeping these thoughts from everyone and not allowing yourself to cry when you need to isn’t healthy.”

“I really am a d-dumbass…”

“Stop saying that. You say that too often. I know sometimes you’re just joking, but when you’re not, it’s just self-loathing at that point.”

“I-I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be.”

“You didn’t have to stay here with me…”

“I know. But I did anyway.”

A brief silence fell between them before Jonesy looked Turk in the eyes.

“Can… Can you keep me company?… Just for a little bit longer?…” He asked quietly. “I… I don’t want to be alone right now…”

The soldier flinched when he heard a taunting snicker.

**_“Of course you don’t, coward!”_ **

When he felt an arm wrap around his shoulder, he snapped back to reality.

“If that’s what you need right now, sure. We can stay here for a while longer.”

Jonesy sighed in relief. “You mind being there for motivation… for when I apologize to Raptor?…”

The moment the EGO leader nodded, the blonde finally smiled for the first time that day.

And for the first time in what felt like ages, he couldn’t hear the taunting voice in his head.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Triage Trooper examined the bruise on Raptor’s face.

“Damn, he got you good.” He commented before handing him a bag of ice. “However, I don’t think it was good enough to cause anything serious. We’ll still check you out just to make sure though.”

“Yeah…” Raptor muttered as he held the bag to his face. “Hey… Did I drive him away?…”

The medic looked at the pilot, surprised. “What? Why would you think that?”

“Because… ya know… He’s been trying to improve relations between us and EGO, and on the day of their surprise visit, I’m caught acting like a fucking idiot and he’s forced to deck me to make me stop trying to blow a hole in the ground.”

“Raptor,” Triage began as he placed a hand on his shoulder, “that was just bad timing. Besides, we all remember how bad the D situation was back home and he hasn’t been in the best of moods lately. Granted, I still think he went overboard in his approach to stop you, but it’s not your fault he was like that. It was The Seven’s fault for what they did. I’m sure he’ll be back and will apologize for what he did. He’s a good man. He just needs a moment to calm down.”

“If you say so, Triage.”

“I just hope he comes back soon.” Ramirez commented as she picked up some debris caused by a few stray grenades.

“If Turk says he’ll get him, he’ll get him.” Remedy assured the leader.

8-Ball suddenly tapped on the Default’s shoulder before pointing over his own with his thumb. When everyone looked in the direction he was pointing, they saw the others stepping aside and watching as Jonesy walked towards them with his head hanging in shame. By his side was Turk, who kept a reassuring hand on the blonde’s shoulder the entire time. When they reached the group, they stopped right in front of them.

“Go on, Jonesy.” The fisherman encouraged.

He took a deep breath before looking up at Raptor. “Rap, I… I’m sorry… I-I shouldn’t have done what I did… I just… I wasn’t in the right mindset… But that doesn’t excuse hitting you…”

Raptor stared at him for a few moments before nodding.

“Apology accepted.”

“But why’d you lash out like you did in the first place?” Ramirez inquired. When he looked away, she placed a hand on her best friend’s arm. “What’s wrong, _hermano_?”

Jonesy hesitated for a few moments. He looked at Turk, who just nodded at him. Taking another deep, albeit shaky, breath, he began to reveal everything he spilled to the fisherman earlier. Before he knew it, he was suddenly pulled into a hug by the Default leader. 

“Jonesy, what happened wasn’t your fault. We all know that The Seven’s rockets caused the black hole. We were all there to witness it. None of us have ever blamed you for the loss of our friends. I don’t know where you got that idea from, but I don’t ever want to hear it again, alright? You don’t need to hold on to this guilt for something you never caused.”

“I…” The soldier could feel a lump in his throat as he struggled to speak. He allowed his tears to fall as he wrapped his arms around her. “I-I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

“Shhhh… It’s going to be ok…”

Turk stepped aside to allow Jonesy’s friends to gather around him. When he saw Ark smile and give him a nod, he smiled back and returned the gesture.

The EGO team waited until the soldier’s friends were done comforting him before letting them know it was time for them to get going. As they were heading toward their boat, the fisherman looked back one last time and saw the blonde give him a thankful smile and a little wave. He smiled and waved back.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“You _held_ him?” Cameo asked with a laugh.

Turk groaned as he leaned back in his chair. “ _Yes_ , I held him. I don’t see what’s so funny about this.”

“Dude, you barely know him!”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” He asked as he turned to look at her.

“I’m just saying that normally, that kind of comforting is left to someone who’s close to the one being held.”

“Glup glup?” Rippley inquired worriedly.

The fisherman nodded. “Yeah, I think he’s going to be fine.”

“And if he isn’t,” Outcast began with a giggle, “I’ll bet _you’ll_ be there to make sure he will.”

Everyone except Remedy and 8-Ball began laughing when they saw their leader’s face turn red from embarrassment.

_“¡Cállate joder!”_ He shouted.

“Alright guys, that’s enough!” Rem scolded. “There’s nothing wrong with being worried about someone whether you know them or not!”

“Always gotta be the mom of the group…” Journey commented.

“We are certain that the sorrow he displayed was genuine?” 8-Ball inquired.

The agents didn’t expect to see him turn to the ninja with a look of indignation.

“Eights, I know you’re supposed to be the one who keeps an eye on everyone in case of anything suspicious, but Jonesy is certainly _not_ one of them. The pain and sadness he let out, I knew it was real. I could see it in his eyes.”

8-Ball stared at his leader before nodding. If Turk was so sure about him, then he would take his word for it. ****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to point out that I, in fact, have never watched an episode of Stranger Things. I just googled the Demogorgon and read the wiki page on it. And the story Ramirez told was based on my friend's account of what happened after people bought the skin and a video I watched of a couple of peeps blending in with the Retail Row monsters.
> 
> Edit:  
> I would also like to point out that I know little to no Spanish at all, so I apologize if anything in Spanish turns out to be wrong.


	5. We are not alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A late night discovery on Apollo leads Jonesy to want to take action to protect their newfound acquaintances, even if EGO's leader believes otherwise.

_11:46 PM_

A shady group of individuals wait in the center of Dirty Docks to make a trade with their associate.

A green haired woman wearing a matching green gas mask sat on top of the semi as she impatiently tapped her index finger on the hood. She looked down at the white haired fisherman casually leaning against the door.

“Where is he?!” She inquired impatiently. “He said he’d be here by the time we showed up!”

The green haired medic glared behind her gas mask when he chuckled.

“Patience, Toxin.” He laughed as he looked up at her, his one good eye showing his amusement in her frustration. “It’s not like our doppelgangers are gonna impede on our deal this late at night.”

“Listen here, you one-eyed fuck! The more time we waste here, the less I ha-”

“Besides,” he interrupted with another laugh, “it’s not like he has the manpower we do. And keep in mind, Scratch isn’t going anywhere. In fact, he’s right over there.”

Toxin looked over at the white clad ninja looking down at his helmet. Parts of it were starting to turn red and black as if it were some kind of computer with a virus.

“What’s happening to me?…” Scratch mused out loud. When he looked up at the medic, he scowled when she looked away in clear disgust. “My face isn’t _that_ fucking hideous!”

_“Put your fucking helmet back on, you white haired scarface!”_

“Fucking bitch.” The ninja muttered under his breath as he slipped his helmet back on. “Making me out to be a disfigured fuck.”

“Glup glup!”

Scratch glared back at the red blob who was waiting with a crate in his hands. “Shut the fuck up, you walking expendable pile of red slop! I could kill you here and now and no one would give a fuck!”

The fisherman glared at his teammate. “We pay you to keep watch during these deals, not stand there and do nothing.”

The ninja huffed in irritation before he went back to patrolling the area. He gave an angry glance when he heard a taunting giggle from a hooded woman standing off to the side.

“Best get a move on, hun!” She laughed as she twirled her exposed green hair in her finger.

“Fuck you, Hazard.” He growled before turning to glare at a pair of women sitting on top of a shipping container as they laughed at him. “And fuck both of you as well!”

The woman wearing a bright blue beanie over her dyed blue hair threw her hands up, mocking innocence. “Now, now, Scratchy. No need to snap at lil’ ol’ us. Right Chic?”

“ _En effet_ , Overcast.” Chic agreed, pretending to straighten her sunglasses like a sophisticated woman.

“ _Now_ , Scratch.” The fisherman ordered impatiently.

“Glup.” A Sludge chimed in as he nodded ahead of them.

Following his gaze, the team saw another semi pulling up to the dock. The white haired man smiled at the sight before looking back at Toxin with a condescending smirk.

“Fuck off, Riptide!” Toxin glared at him before pointing to her creations. “Sludge, be ready to make the trade!”

With a smile, Riptide stood up straight and approached the semi as it came to a stop beside them and the driver climbed out.

“Greetings, Big Mouth. You’re late. Trouble with the cargo?”

Big Mouth snarled as he shrugged. Walking around to the back of the trailer, he opened it before allowing a few of the Sludge to take out the crates. Both sides watched as the red blobs opened the wooden cases to reveal the contents. Riptide examined each of them before looking back at his team with a nod.

“It’s all here. Give him what he wants and load everything up.”

One of the Sludge placed down the crate they brought in front of Big Mouth as the rest closed and loaded everything into their semi truck’s trailer. Standing next to the one-eyed fisherman, both watched as their associate ripped open the crate and eagerly pulled out one of the purple eyed frogs inside before stuffing it into his large mouth.

Throughout the whole thing, Scratch patrolled the dock. A sudden wave of pain washed over him, causing him to have to hold himself up against a chain linked fence. He took off his helmet in time to see the red and black spread farther down.

“ _Shit_ … What the hell is happening to me?…” He asked himself, unable to focus on anything but his pain.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“What’s going on?” Red Jade whispered.

Kenji placed a finger over his mouth and quietly shushed her. “Keep your voice down. Their lookout could be anywhere.”

“He’s distracted.”

Both ninja glanced over their shoulders to see Cloaked Star crouch walk towards them with Kuno right behind him.

“What do you mean distracted?” The female red and black ninja inquired.

“He’s currently using a chain linked fence to hold himself up. He looks like he’s in pain.” The mask wearing hooded ninja explained.

“Did you get a picture of him?”

“Yeah, right here.” Kuno commented as she held up her phone.

Kenji looked down from the roof they were standing on at the team as they continued to load up the crates. “I wish to know who they are and why we were never informed about them.”

“I don’t think EGO ever expected us to find a way to get back to the main island.” Red Jade quietly responded with a shrug.

The quartet of ninjas quickly ducked out of view when Overcast began to look up, almost being spotted by the blue haired fisherwoman.

“We are playing with fire the longer we stay here.” Kuno commented. “We have taken enough pictures of them. Let us forget what we were initially sent to the island to get and head back before we are spotted.”

Understanding the danger they had gotten themselves in, the ninjas nodded. What they were sent for wasn’t that important anyways.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


The EGO agents knew by now that the Athena residents had pretty much figured out when they were scheduled to check in on them. They began expecting someone, usually Jonesy, to be waiting for their boat to pull up to greet them after the first few times. After the way Turk had helped Jonesy, they _really_ expected to see the blonde waiting for them again.

But they never expected to be greeted by the main 3 Defaults with Red Jade, Kenji, Kuno, and Cloaked Star behind them.

“You guys have _a lot_ of explaining to do.” Banshee said with her hands on her hips.

“What do you mean?” Turk inquired with a raised eyebrow.

“Last night,” Ramirez began before she motioned towards the ninjas with them, “these 4 volunteered to go to the island last night to grab some ingredients for the Tomatoheads needed to make more pizzas because they wouldn’t stop bothering everyone about it. They ended up heading to Dirty Docks when they saw light there from the Battle Bus. What they found deserves an explanation.”

Red Jade and Kuno held up their phones to show the confused squad the pictures they had taken the previous night. The group watched as the agents’ eyes widened as the ninjas scrolled through everything they had seen.

“Oh shit.” Journey commented, not knowing what else to say.

Rippley quickly looked down at his feet. “Glup…”

“Plain ass bitch.” Cameo muttered when she saw a picture of Chic.

Turk folded his arms and frowned at the pictures of what their enemy had been doing the night before without their knowledge.

“Stocking up on weapons and healing items… What are they planning?… What do they need all that for?…” He mused to himself as his gaze shifted downward.

“Turk…”

The bearded fisherman was brought back to reality when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked back up to see a very worried Jonesy in front of him.

“What are you guys not telling us?” The blonde asked. “Who are they?”

The leader sighed. He could tell there was no way out of this.

“They’re an enemy group called ALTER. I guess you could consider them our “alter egos”. Yes, I see the joke in saying that. We don’t know why most of them look like us, but I can explain Rippley.”

He paused to look over at the blue blob. When he got a nod in return, he looked back at the soldier and continued.

“Rippley used to be one of the many red versions of himself known as Sludge until he went through the pipes of the Slurp Factory. The rest of the ALTER agents are named Toxin, Scratch, Overcast, Hazard, Chic, and Riptide, all of whom are alters of Remedy, 8-Ball, Outcast, Journey, Cameo, and myself in that order. They’ve been causing problems for us for a while.”

Jonesy, now even more concerned, grabbed Turk by his shoulders. 

“Turk, I don’t think you guys should be dealing with them alone. Judging from what you just said and from what I’ve seen, EGO seems to be outnumbered by those… Sludge. I’m not trying to doubt you guys, but even experienced people, whether they’re soldiers or agents, can’t handle everyone.”

“What do you suggest we do then?” Turk asked. “Our boss won’t send in the henchmen.”

“Well…” The soldier thought hard about what to say. “Let _us_ help you then! We’ve got enough people to even the score!”

The fisherman stared at the blonde in surprise before he smiled at him and took his hands off his shoulders.

“Jonesy, that’s very thoughtful of you, but we can’t ask you and your people to do that for us.”

“But-”

“Besides, we managed to get away from Toxin and her Sludge with little more than scrapes and bruises when there were only 5 of us before. I appreciate the thought, I really do, but we just can’t ask any of you to put yourselves in danger for us.”

“But…” Jonesy trailed off, unconvinced. “Turk, you can’t-”

“We’ll be fine.” Turk reassured as he placed a hand on the soldier’s shoulder. “It really was a kind offer, but you can’t make the decision without asking them first.”

The blonde didn’t say anything. He just nodded and allowed the agents to walk past them.

Despite that, he wasn’t convinced they would actually be fine.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“No, Jonesy.”

“They _do not_ have everything under control, Ramirez!”

The Defaults stood back and watched their leader argue with one of their co-leaders. Jonesy wanted to go through with his offer even without Turk’s approval while Ramirez was choosing to trust EGO’s abilities.

“Turk already turned down your offer, Jonesy!” Ramirez argued. “If he says they’ll be fine, then I believe that they’ll be fine!”

“What if he just said that so he didn’t worry us?!” Jonesy argued back. “There are more of those Sludge things than we initially saw in those photos!”

“I understand your concern, but if they don’t want our help, we can’t force them to let us! Why are you so determined to help people we hardly even kno-”

_“Maybe because I want to pay Turk back for the way he helped me!”_ The soldier interrupted in frustration. “Look around us, Ramirez! We wouldn’t even _have_ another Spawn Island to call our new home if it weren’t for EGO! And even though we weren’t told we were allowed to go back to the main island yet, they didn’t even try to say we couldn’t use the Battle Bus! I know they attacked us when we first met them, but that’s only because _we_ were the intruders on _their_ island! Now, there’s an actual threat that outnumbers them and their boss won’t send their henchmen to help them! If I can’t repay my dues, how does that still make me a soldier?! People’s lives are in danger, but you’re still ordering me to stand down?! I’m sorry, Ramirez, but I just can’t stand by and wait for them to die! They helped us, so now it’s our turn to help them!”

No one said anything. They just watched as the blonde picked up Bonesy and held him close.

“And maybe because…” Jonesy trailed off as he looked down, the anger and frustration he showed having died down. “I’ve also become attached to him…”

Ramirez stared at her best friend for a few moments before she sighed. Stepping closer to him, she placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I can’t force EGO to accept your offer,” she began calmly as he looked back up at her, “but I can assign people to patrol the island to put your mind at ease. We won’t get involved with their business _unless_ they actually need help. Does that sound fair?”

Jonesy thought about the compromise that was presented to him. It wouldn’t be going against Turk’s wishes exactly and could easily be explained if they were asked about it. The thought of knowing that they’d be looked after was becoming more and more comforting the more he thought about it.

“Yeah…” He finally agreed with a nod. “Yeah, it sounds pretty fair.”

“Alright then. I’ll tell everyone tomorrow morning and see if anyone’s willing to take first watch.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit:
> 
> I apologize for not posting the next chapter yet. College has been taking up most of my time and my beta reader/co-author has a new job, so progress has been slow. Chapter 6 has been written, but it just hasn't been looked at yet. Once my friend reads it and tells me what he thinks about it, I'll be posting it asap. Thank you for your patience and for reading my story. It means a lot to me.


	6. ALTERcation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ALTER makes a move.
> 
> Jonesy meets with someone he hoped he'd never have to see again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long. College ate up most of my time. Thank you for your patience.
> 
> Edit:  
> Lol I posted this before my friend looked at the apology scene and found out a few minutes later that it should've been changed! XD

“It’s been days, Jonesy.” Ramirez said with a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “No one’s spotted anything yet. You sure you still want to keep them under tabs?”

“For the millionth time, _yes_.” Jonesy groaned in frustration. “We can’t just stop knowing that this ALTER group has been stockpiling weapons.”

“First of all, I can do without the attitude. Second, some of the people who agreed to being EGO’s lookout have been complaining about being bored just watching them go about their business. I know you’re worried, but they eventually need to take a break.”

The blonde sighed in irritation. He couldn’t help his attitude, but he did understand where she was coming from. All of the reports from the ones who volunteered to watch over EGO have come back with nothing out of the ordinary. He really did want to be more optimistic, but there had been something that was eating away at his patience.

**_“Wouldn’t it be funny if they were attacked when you guys weren’t watching them? I think it would.”_ **

Jonesy flinched and placed a hand on his head as if he were in pain. Why couldn’t he just leave him alone for at least 5 minutes?

He felt a concerned hand on his shoulder. He didn’t have to look back up to know it was Ramirez.

“You’ve been doing that for the past few days. Is something wrong?”

“Y-Yeah…” He forced out when the other Defaults got closer out of concern. “I’m fine. Just a bit of a headache.”

**_“You’ve never been fine. You’ve always been flawed.”_ **

“Headache my ass!” Banshee scoffed. “No one has consistent headaches a few days in a row!”

Bonesy whimpered and nudged his muzzle against his master’s cheek.

“I’m alright, I promise.” The soldier reassured. “I think all my worrying has just been causing me some unnecessary stress.”

Emmy frowned. “We could’ve told you that. But these “headaches” don’t feel like something we shouldn’t worry about.”

“Emmy’s right.” Rio agreed. “And you haven’t had this bad of an attitude since Turk talked with you.”

“I’m _fine_.”

_“Mama Bird to Nest! Mama Bird to Nest! Come in Nest!”_

Hearing the lookout’s frantic voice, Ramirez’s hand flew to her earpiece.

“Top Dog to Mama Bird. Is something happening with The Chicks?”

At that moment, the Defaults could hear the distant sound of an explosion coming from the direction of Lazy Lake.

_“The Chicks are under attack! I repeat, The Chicks are under attack!”_

“What?! Where?!” She asked as her eyes widened.

Jonesy felt his blood run cold as he watched the rising plume of smoke while questions came flooding in from the others. He knew where they were.

_“Everyone get to the barracks!”_ The soldier shouted into his commlink.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Turk grunted in pain as he was slammed face down into the dirt. He struggled to free himself from their enemy’s grip, but they just seemed to hold him down harder the more he struggled. Eventually, he felt his Scar be removed from his hands before hearing it tossed to the side. Once he was unarmed, he felt himself being lifted back up to his feet. The fisherman began spitting out the dirt that had gotten into his mouth before he looked up to glare at the white haired man in front of him.

“Now, now, Turk,” Riptide began with a mocking chuckle, “there’s no need for hostility. You lost fair and square after all.”

“Fair and square?!” The EGO leader repeated angrily as he struggled to reach his counterpart. “You attacked us out of nowhere in numbers! One of us wasn’t even ready for field duty yet! You call that fair?!”

“All’s fair in love and war, my doppelganger.”

8-Ball was suddenly sent rolling passed them, his helmet and breastplate armor cracked once more. Struggling to his hands and knees, he reached for one of his dropped Bank Shots before a white boot kicked it out of reach.

“What did you do to me?!”

The ninja looked up in time to receive a punch to the head, knocking him on his side. His vision blurred for a few moments as he felt himself being lifted by his armor. When it cleared, he saw that he was now face to face with his ALTER counterpart.

“I’ll ask you again,” Scratch growled, _“what the hell did you do to me?!”_

The white ninja’s corruption had now spread down to his upper body. Despite the now blackened helmet, the black ninja could feel his counterpart’s hate filled gaze directed at him.

**_“ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION!”_ **

8-Ball managed to force himself to shrug.

**_“BULLSHIT!!”_ **

Scratch decked Eights as hard as he could, knocking him back to the ground.

“8-Ball!” Remedy struggled to escape the Sludge holding her back. “Leave him alone!”

Toxin grabbed the black haired medic’s face in a vice like grip while holding up a few green liquid filled vials in her free hand.

“You have other things to worry about.”

Rem squirmed in her doppelganger’s grip. “Don’t touch me!”

“Glup glup! Glup glup!” Rippley cried as he dug his feet into the ground, desperately trying to stop the two Sludge dragging him towards his creator.

“ _You_.” The gas masked medic growled. “You better be worth all the hassle you’ve been causing us.”

_“Don’t touch him!”_ Cameo shouted as she kicked violently at the Sludges that were holding her back.

The fashionista glared when she heard Chic laugh at her expense.

“My, my. So aggressive.” The ALTER fashionista giggled mockingly as she snatched the blue and green haired woman’s visors.

“You unimaginative plain ass _bitch_!”

“ _Espèce de sous-merde aussi!_ ”

“Untie us!” Journey and Outcast demanded together as they squirmed against the climbing rope used to bind them together.

Hazard and Overcast laughed at the sight of the women struggling.

“Ouch! Journey, you’re elbowing my side!”

“Ack! You’re kicking the back of my feet!”

Turk could only watch helplessly as his team struggled against their enemy. He tried one last time to pull himself free from the Sludges restraining him, but it only resulted in them kicking the back of his legs to force him to his knees.

“You honestly thought you had a chance against us?” Riptide asked with a laugh. He reached down to grab his counterpart by his chin and force him to look at him. “We have numbers. We have associates. We have ways to replace anyone who can’t fight. And what do you have? Nothing but your loyalty and friendship.”

The white haired man began to chuckle when he noticed a sudden change in his doppelganger. The bearded fisherman’s eyes had shifted away from him.

“Oh? Did I get something wrong?”

Turk pulled his head out of his grip and looked away with his eyes shut.

“You know something. What? Are you not alone after all?”

He said nothing.

Riptide turned to his team with a laugh. “Fisherman is hiding something, guys! He knows something we don’t!”

ALTER watched most of the EGO team’s demeanors changed, except for 8-Ball’s who didn’t once look away from Scratch at the news.

“What do you know, Turk?” The white haired fisherman questioned. When he still got no response, he grabbed him by the face and forced him to look at him again. “ _What_ do you _know_ , Turk?”

“I’ve got _nothing_ to say to you.” Turk growled.

He held his glare when his alter ego grabbed him by the front of his shirt and roughly pulled him to his feet.

“I don’t think you understand the situation you’re in. You _could_ get off scot free.”

“Fuck you.”

He grunted when he was slammed back down, this time on his hands and knees while his counterpart began digging his heel into his back.

“You’re running out of opportunities here.” Riptide informed him as he pressed down harder.

Turk gritted his teeth in pain while he pushed back against the force. “G-Go suck a dick!”

He would rather die than put the Atheneans in danger.

“This is only going to get worse, Turk.”

In an instant, Riptide switched his heel with his left hand as he grabbed Turk’s right arm with his free hand and began pulling it backwards.

“ _M-Mierda!…_ ” Turk hissed through his teeth.

“You know what will end this.”

The EGO leader could faintly hear his teammates being interrogated as well in the background. Taking a deep breath, he finally looked at him over his shoulder.

“ _V-Vete al d-demonio._ ”

Riptide closed his only eye and sighed.

“What a shame. For _you_ at least.”

Before the fisherman could respond, his counterpart suddenly yanked his arm roughly. He screamed in pure agony as a loud pop came from his shoulder. The ALTER agent had just dislocated his shoulder.

“Who else is here?” Riptide questioned, unfazed by his rival’s screams.

**_“¡V-VETE A-AL D-DEMONIO!”_ ** Turk screamed as tears fell from the pain.

The white haired man tightened his grip and prepared to pull his arm again.

**_“WE ARE!!”_ **

At the sound of the voice, the ALTER fisherman turned around and was immediately sucker punched in the face. He unwittingly released Turk from his grip as he staggered backwards.

“What the-”

“R-Ravage?…”

Regaining his senses, Riptide looked up and saw a woman dressed in black and purple clothing that had been stitched together, a raven-like headdress with 3 purple feathers, claws on each of her fingers, and had large bluish-purple wings on her back standing in front of his EGO counterpart. Her glowing purple eyes glared deep into the white haired fisherman’s eye.

Ravage slammed her fist into her hand and cracked her knuckles. “They have us. And we won’t let _anyone_ get away with harming them.”

“Wh-What are you d-doing here?!” Turk asked while holding his shoulder. “I-I said-”

_“Y’all really thought Jonesy would just let it go?”_

Everyone turned around to see Calamity standing on the hill behind the barracks with a large number of her people behind her.

_“Cuz if ya did,”_ the cowgirl began as she cocked the shotgun she was holding, _“y’all clearly don’t know that he’s as stubborn as a bull!”_

With a laugh, Riptide began to slowly clap.

“Impressive. _Very_ impressive. But I’m afraid this isn’t enough to take us all on.”

Ravage let out a snicker.

“The fuck you laughing at?” Scratch questioned, now holding 8-Ball down with his foot.

“Did you honestly think…”

A couple of battle horns was faintly heard from both the directions of Lazy Lake and the diner in between the barracks and Frenzy Farm while a howl sounded from somewhere across the river leading to the waterfall.

“That we would just bring a few of us to this?”

Atheneans suddenly came charging from all sides. Dire led the group across the river, Recon Expert led a group from Lazy, and Moxie led hers from the direction of the diner.

_“Y’all done fucked up now!”_ Calamity shouted before leading her group down the hill.

Ravage quickly began leading Turk away from the chaos as her people surrounded the ALTER agents.

“H-Hey, wait!” The fisherman cried before trying to go back. “My team!”

“Don’t worry about them!” Ravage exclaimed as she blocked him. “We’ll take care of that part!”

“B-But-”

**_“TURK!”_ **

Turk spun around to see Jonesy rushing over to him with the other Defaults behind him while Ravage went to help.

“Jonesy?!”

The soldier came to a stop in front of him and took a look at his shoulder.

“You’ll be fine, huh?”

“What are you guys doing here?!” The fisherman asked angrily. “I told you you couldn’t put yourselves in danger for us!”

_“And you expected me to just stand by?!”_ The blonde shot back. _“I may be a dumbass, but even I know when you’re in way over your head! I wasn’t going to wait for you to fucking die, Turk!”_

“Turk,” Ramirez began as she placed a hand on his uninjured shoulder, “Jonesy just wanted to pay you back for the way you helped him. He’s been worried sick ever since you denied his offer to help you and your team. And it doesn’t help that he’s grown attached to you.”

Turk looked back at the blonde soldier and saw that the anger and frustration he expressed had softened. He didn’t know what to say to that revelation.

“I’ve lost so much already. I don’t think I could stand to lose anything else.” Jonesy admitted.

“Jonesy, I-” The fisherman cut himself off when another wave of stabbing pain coursed through his arm. He hunched over and cried out in pain as he felt someone wrap their arms around him.

“Turk!” Looking around, the blonde spotted the medics and the lifeguards carrying the rest of the EGO agents out of the crowd. _“Guys! Emergency!”_

Upon seeing Turk’s shoulder, both groups immediately rushed over to check on him.

“Oh God, _Turk!_ ” Outcast exclaimed as she rushed to her friend’s side.

“Outcast, please step aside!” Triage Trooper said before taking a look. “This is bad. Really bad.”

“Riptide pulled his shoulder out of place?” Field Surgeon inquired.

“He did.” Remedy confirmed with a nod. She looked back at their barracks that had become a war zone. “I have something I could give him for his pain, but I’ll never reach it with all this chaos.”

“We’ll handle that.” Triage explained as he took out a medkit. “We have everything we need right here. Turk, we’re gonna have to pop it back into place before we can do that!”

_“Are you crazy?!”_ Turk screeched indignantly. _"That'll hurt like a bitch!"_

“It won’t last that long! We have to set it now or risk compli-”

**_“LOOK OUT!”_ ** Rio and Hector screamed as they rushed to the front with pencils and blueprints.

The group noticed a stray rocket flying towards them just before the 2 recruits both placed a wall and ramp made out of wood, all of which was destroyed by the explosion.

“What the?!” Cameo exclaimed in confusion.

Turk yelped as he was suddenly picked up.

“We can’t treat anyone here! We have to get EGO out of here!” Jonesy said over Bonesy’s barking, holding the fisherman close. “We need to call the bus driver!”

“Where are we gonna go to do that, genius?” Banshee questioned.

The soldier looked around before noticing lights in the distance. Following where it was coming from, he saw it. The ski lodge above Misty Meadows.

“There! Apres Ski!” He quickly glanced at the other Defaults. “Grab who you can! _Now!_ We’re gonna make a break for it! Medics and lifeguards, you’re with us!”

As the medics and lifeguards nodded, six of the Defaults quickly picked up the rest of EGO and carried them over their shoulders. 

Looking back at the chaos, the soldier saw John Wick slam down a Sludge before shooting him in the head with a shotgun.

“John!”

The retired hitman looked up at him.

“You know what to do!”

John nodded, not needing to be told what he meant, before spinning around to elbow another Sludge in the face. The group immediately took off running. Sun Strider, one of the lifeguards, ran at the front in order to place walls to shield everyone from stray rockets and bullets. Riptide noticed what was happening and attempted to give chase, only to be cut off by Luxe and Fable.

“Wanna get to them?” Luxe asked with a crack of her knuckles.

“You’re gonna have to get through us first.” Fable informed him with her Guiding Glow in hand.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Turk looked back at the battle at the barracks over Jonesy’s shoulder with wide eyes.

“What are you doing?!” He asked the soldier in bewilderment.

“What does it look like we’re doing?!” Jonesy responded impatiently. “We’re getting you guys somewhere safer!”

“But your team!”

“Don’t worry about them!”

“You can’t just leave them without leadership!”

“I said don’t worry about them!”

**_“What do you think Spitfire’s doing in the afterlife?”_ **

He flinched and nearly tripped over his own feet, earning a startled yelp from the bearded fisherman.

**_“Whoops. Too soon?”_ **

“Jonesy?” Turk called out worriedly.

**_“I wonder how Hawk would look in that ranger uniform of yours?”_ **

“Jonesy!”

**_“They screamed your name, you know. When they were sucked into that black hole.”_ **

_“Jonesy!”_

**_“TURK, WOULD YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR 5 SECONDS AND LET US DO OUR FUCKING JOB?!”_ **

Turk immediately fell into a startled silence. He never expected to hear such rage and irritation directed at him from the normally friendly man.

“You have _no_ idea of what we’ve been through! You think we only went through a black hole and the loss of our friends?! We’ve been through meteor showers, a rocket that temporarily connected our world with Drift’s via rifts that dragged him and objects from his world into ours, a big ass purple cube that corrupted areas of our island, monsters that were created by that damn cube, a blizzard, an erupting volcano, and a monster fighting a mech!”

“Jonesy, I didn’t-”

**_“WE WERE EVEN FORCED TO KILL ONE OF OUR OWN AFTER THAT DAMN CUBE CORRUPTED HIM AND YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT A SIMPLE FIGHT AGAINST A RIVAL GROUP?!”_ **

Turk’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened.

“What more could we go through at this point?! We’ve seen almost everything there is to see! Besides, we didn’t leave them without a voice of reason! Whenever we can’t be there, we leave John in charge! This isn’t something we haven’t done before!”

The fisherman didn’t say anything other than his pained noises from the soldier’s movement. He just held on to his arm. What could he say at this point?

“Sun Strider, Sun Tan Specialist, we need to get across the water without swimming or the use of a boat!”

“We got it, man!” Sun Tan exclaimed.

“I’m almost out of mats, but I’ll do what I can!” Sun Strider explained.

As they reached the water, the lifeguards ran ahead and began building their way across the water towards Misty. True to her word, Sun Strider ran out materials. She slowed down far enough to allow her partner to take the lead and finish the bridge.

The moment everyone was across the bridge, Jonesy stopped.

“Wait!” He called out.

Everyone stopped running and looked at him.

“ _Why_ are we stopping?” Banshee questioned before shifting Cameo to a more comfortable position.

In a flash, Jonesy dropped Turk’s legs, reached up, and suddenly popped his shoulder back in place. At the sound of the pop, everyone winced. The soldier then quickly slapped a hand over the fisherman’s mouth as he screamed from the pain. They could faintly hear what they assumed to be a string of muffled swearing in Spanish. When his body relaxed, he took his hand away, allowing everyone to hear the leader quietly sobbing from the intense pain.

“Y-You fucking asshole…” Turk whimpered.

“Sorry.” Jonesy apologized with a sigh as he picked him back up. “I couldn’t leave it like that. Better to do it when you weren’t expecting it as opposed to when you were. Let’s keep going. Carlos, since you aren’t carrying anyone, destroy the bridge. We can’t let anyone follow us that easily.”

“Got it.”

“Catch up when you’re done.”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Turk watched as Jonesy unplugged the DJ table and threw the plug to the side, muttering something about how annoying the music was. He then hopped off the stage and walked down the stairs, letting everyone know he was going to look for ice.

“Turk?”

The fisherman turned back around to see Journey standing in front of him. Sun Strider had disinfected and bandaged up her arms where the rope had dug in and had placed a bandage over a cut she got on her cheek.

“Hm?”

“You’re bothered by what he said, aren’t you?” The mountain climber asked.

When he looked down, she sighed and sat down next to him. She watched as the medics and lifeguards tended to the rest of the team while the other Defaults were taking a breather. Bonesy laid sleeping on Ramirez’s lap.

“I’m sorry I let this happen…” Turk muttered.

“How could you have known? You were just trying to keep them safe.” Journey reassured.

“But in the process, I put all of us in danger…” He responded before burying his face into his good hand. “All those weapons, Journey. We should’ve known this would’ve happened…”

Journey placed a hand on his back. “Turk-”

Both turned around at the sound of Jonesy’s footsteps heading back up the stairs. When he got back, he was holding a bag of ice in his hand. He walked over to Turk before jerking his head to the side at Journey, silently asking her to move. When she did, the soldier got to work on patching up the fisherman.

“Probably gonna have to take off your shirt before I can strap the ice pack to your shoulder.” Jonesy commented. “Might have to move your overalls too.”

“I don’t have anything on underneath my shirt…” Turk admitted. “It’s been… pretty warm.”

“Tough shit, man. Your shoulder was dislocated. I need to strap this ice to your shoulder before I can put your arm in a sling. Now, you’re probably gonna want to move the overalls yourself. I may not be in the best of moods, but I still know when I’d be crossing a line.”

Turk sighed quietly before using his good arm to pull off the strap over his shoulders. He allowed Jonesy to help him remove the strap over his shirt before the soldier unbuttoned the article of clothing. The fisherman felt his face flush red with embarrassment as he allowed him to carefully remove his gloves and shirt. The moment his good arm was free, he reached up and pulled his beanie over his eyes in an attempt to hide himself.

Jonesy paused in his actions and hummed in thought.

“That was… honestly adorable…”

The fisherman’s face was now burning red. He could faintly hear Journey, Outcast, and Cameo snickering at his expense.

“Habit?” Jonesy inquired as he placed the ice pack on the bearded man’s shoulder, earning a pained hiss.

“Y-Yeah… I… I do it when I feel embarrassed…” Turk explained as he tried to pull his beanie down further.

“In the past, I used to pull the bandana I wore over my face. Now that I don’t wear it anymore, I’ve been trying to pull my collar up.”

The two fell into an awkward silence as the blonde used an elastic wrap to strap the ice pack to the leader’s shoulder.

Turk looked back at the man patching him up.

“Jonesy?…”

The soldier didn’t respond as he began putting the fisherman's arm into a sling.

“I’m sorry…”

Jonesy paused and looked at him. He raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“I… I didn’t know… I apologize. I never imagined that you’ve been through such battles… or suffered such a terrible loss. You guys have always come off as such goofy, carefree people that I sometimes forget that you’re seasoned soldiers from another world. I shouldn’t have turned down your offer so abruptly and then let my anger get the best of me when you just wanted to help us… Again, I apologize…”

Jonesy just stared at him for a few seconds before he sighed and finished with the sling.

“You couldn’t have known in the first place.” He said before sitting down next to him. “It’s not like we told you about it.”

“It’s not like you guys cared enough to get to know us anyways.” Banshee added as she folded her arms.

EGO looked at her in surprise.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Remedy inquired.

The black woman scoffed. “Don’t act like you don’t know. How often do _any_ of you stop to talk with us on a personal level instead of just checking in on us? The only few times I’ve seen that happen before now is when Rippley would fall into a long conversation with Jonesy anytime he visited and when Turk went to bring him back to Spawn Island after decking Raptor for flipping the hell out! Face it, apart from Rippley, none of you ever cared enough to even _try_ to get to know us!”

  
  


Ramirez placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder to calm her down while the agents looked at each other. They knew she was right. Not once had they thought to stop to talk with the Atheneans whenever they went to Spawn Island outside of checking in on them. Rippley was the only one who tried to get to know them because of how friendly he was.

Turk buried his face into his hand. “ _Mierda…_ ”

**_“They never cared about you.”_ **

Jonesy suddenly buried his hands into his hair as he hunched over as if he were in pain. His eyes were squeezed shut as he tried with all his might to suppress him. He barely heard everyone’s concerned questions and wasn’t able to immediately register that there was a hand on his shoulder.

“Jonesy, what’s wrong?” Turk asked worriedly.

“Don’t you even _dare_ try to say that it’s just a headache again!” Banshee angrily warned him.

Bonesy whimpered and hopped on his hind legs with his front paws on Jonesy’s leg, desperately trying to reach his master to comfort him.

“I-I’m alright…” Jonesy forced out.

_“Bullshit!”_ Banshee shrieked.

“Banshee, enough!” Ramirez scolded before placing her hand on his arm. “Jonesy, something isn’t right. Please, tell us what’s wrong.”

Jonesy hesitated. “I…”

**_“Riptide got through! Riptide got through!”_ **

**_“Dream!”_ **

The EGO agents and recruits looked around in bewilderment at the sudden appearance of the voices while the main 3 Defaults, medics, and lifeguards immediately looked up.

“What do you mean he got through?!” Jonesy asked frantically.

**_“Luxe and Fable couldn’t hold him back forever and John didn’t see him slip passed them with a small group of Sludge behind him! They’re swimming across the water to Misty and headed right for you!”_ **

“Shit! How far is the bus driver?”

**_“Close, but not close enough. I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to fight back on your own.”_ **

The blonde muttered some curses under his breath before he got up and pulled out his assault rifle.

“I didn’t grab a lot of ammo.” He said. “Did you guys?”

“I grabbed what I could.” Mansu, another one of the new recruits, responded as his fellow recruits nodded in agreement.

“We didn’t get much either.” Ramirez reminded her friend as she and Banshee checked their ammo supply.

“I raided as many ammo boxes as I could find.” Triage Trooper said as he pulled out a pistol.

“Triage took most of the ammo boxes, so I didn’t get a lot.” Field Surgeon shrugged.

“Sun Strider and I have a decent amount.” Sun Tan Specialist commented.

“Sun Strider’s already said she’s out of mats. The rest of us good on that?” Jonesy inquired.

“I’m low from the bridge, but I have enough to block enemy fire for a bit.” Sun Tan admitted.

“Mats?” Outcast asked with a tilt of her head.

“Altogether, we should have enough to block the rockets.” Ramirez said as she pulled out her own Scar.

“Guys, what are mats?”

“Outcast, we’ll explain later!” The blonde responded irritably. “Just stay inside and _do not_ come out for any reason until it’s safe!”

The Default leader placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed, silently reminding him to calm down. He took a deep breath before picking up Bonesy and handing him to Remedy.

“Keep an eye on him for me. I don’t want Bonesy to get hurt.”

The medic nodded and took the dog from the soldier. “You can count on me.”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


**_“LOOK OUT!”_ **

The team ducked to avoid the rocket flying over their heads before Carlos and Hector placed a couple more walls and ramps made of metal. 

None of them knew how long they had been there trying to keep Riptide and his small group of Sludges at bay, but they knew that they couldn’t keep it up forever. Any time they tried to take out the white haired man, he would just take cover behind another Sludge. If they took out the Sludge, he’d just move out of their weapon’s firing range.

Reloading his AR, Jonesy peeked over the build and joined Sun Strider, Mansu, Emmy, and Rio in returning fire. By that point, they were the only ones who still had any ammo. The group ducked down whenever the bullets barely missed their heads, shoulders, or arms and waited a few moments before reloading and going back to shooting.

Suddenly, in the middle of firing, Jonesy heard a series of empty clicks.

**_“I’M OUT OF AMMO!”_ ** He called out as he quickly got off the build.

**_“Don’t lose focus now, Jonesy. You wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt the moment everyone runs out of mats and ammo, would you?”_ **

The blonde quickly shook his head as if it would get rid of him.

**_“I’M OUT!”_ **

**_“ME TOO!”_ **

**_“CRAP!”_ **

The moment she too ran out of ammo, Emmy threw her pistol at a Sludge before ducking back down with the others.

_“This is bad!”_ She exclaimed. _“Reeeaaally bad!”_

_“We can’t keep this up forever!”_ Hector called out. _“I’m running out of mats!”_

**_“You’ll never be strong enough to protect anyone.”_ **

Jonesy pressed a hand to his head with his eyes shut tightly. He didn’t hear when someone screamed a warning to move when a rocket managed to slip passed the builds.

**_“JONESY, LOOK OUT!”_ **

He suddenly felt an arm wrap around his neck before he was roughly pulled out of the way of the explosive. When he regained his senses, he looked up to see Turk at his side.

**_“YOU TRYING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED, DUMBASS?!”_ ** Banshee asked angrily.

_“Focus, Banshee!”_ Ramirez ordered.

_“Turk, why are you out here?!”_ Jonesy questioned. _“You should be back inside with your-”_

When he looked back towards the lodge, the soldier saw the rest of the EGO team behind them.

_“I guess you can say that we can be stubborn, too!”_ Turk explained over the constant rain of bullets and rockets.

_“But you can’t-”_

**_“No one cares about what you say.”_ **

His hands flew into his blonde hair and clung on to the strands tightly. He felt tears beginning to flood his eyes.

It hurt.

It hurt so much.

Remedy yelped when 8-Ball grabbed and pulled her down to avoid a few stray bullets, one of which grazed her arm.

**_“Don’t fail EGO, Jonesy. Like how you failed your friends.”_ **

Jonesy’s body suddenly relaxed as he let out a barely audible gasp. With his head hanging down, he slowly rose to his feet.

_“Jonesy?!”_ Turk called out, tugging on the sleeve of his jacket in an attempt to get his attention.

Ramirez and Banshee glanced over their shoulders to see what was going on before they were suddenly shoved into the others as their friend charged full speed through an opening and went straight for Riptide and the Sludge, not seeming to care about the rain of bullets and rockets. While everyone else shouted after him, both women looked at each other horrified. In the brief moment they had seen Jonesy as he charged at them, they had seen that his blue eyes were now a glowing purple and had glowing purple marks that looked like strikes of lightning piercing through his eyes.

At that moment, they realized what had really been going on.

Both shoved their way through the crowded opening as if to give chase when they saw what their friend was doing.

**_“JONESY!!!”_ **

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Darkness.

That was all Jonesy could see no matter where he looked. Above, below, to the left, to the right, and behind him was all the same.

He knew where he was, a fact that brought him more panic and fear than comfort.

**“Atta boy, Jonesy.”** A distorted version of his own voice cooed from behind.

The soldier immediately spun around to face the source. His eyes widened with a mixture of fear and rage as he jumped back at the sight of what was behind him.

A familiar face with short black hair, blueish-purple skin, glowing purple lightning strike marks piercing through glowing purple eyes, and a black and purple version of his old outfit with strange purple runes throughout it.

His Dark Reflection.

“Dark Jonesy…”

**“So good to see you again,** **_old friend_** **.”** Dark Jonesy mocked with a smirk.

“What are you doing to them?! _Let me go!_ ” Jonesy demanded, trying to stand tall.

**“My, my. So aggressive. I’m just helping you do what you can’t without a little push.”**

“What?”

**“Your legs are moving, but not because of yours truly. I’m simply encouraging your instincts to take over.”**

At that moment, a large cut appeared on both men’s left cheeks. Jonesy flinched as his hand flew to his cheek while he watched Dark Jonesy smirk wider before placing his hand on his cut and looking at the purple liquid on his fingers.

**“Seems like a bullet just grazed your cheek.”**

“Let me go _now!_ ” Jonesy repeated with more rage.

**“Not yet, Jonesy.”** The Dark Reflection laughed. **“You haven’t reached your target yet.”**

_“What target?!”_

The soldier suddenly felt rumbling beneath his feet. Struggling to stay standing, he noticed his evil counterpart’s smirk break out into a grin.

**“You did it. You now have him where you want him.”** Dark Jonesy stated.

“Him?”

**_“JONESY!!!”_ **

Jonesy frantically looked around at the sound of Ramirez’s voice. What was he doing? Did he hurt someone? He didn’t want to be within the confines of his own mind. He just wanted to go home.

**“Now,”** Dark Jonesy began smugly, **“go see what you’ve accomplished.”**

Jonesy blinked once and was almost instantly hit with a wave of dizziness when he opened his eyes again. His vision was blurry, but he was able to faintly make out a shape in front of him. The more senses he regained, the more he eventually realized that he was holding the shape. He could hear every fiber of his being screaming at him to drop it, but he decided against it.

_“…-sy!… Jon-!… -ut… -im… -wn!”_

The blonde shook his head as his hearing slowly returned.

**_“…-NESY!!! …-ONESY!!! JONESY, PUT HIM DOWN!!!”_ **

Blinking the blurriness away, Jonesy gradually realized that what he was holding was the front of Riptide’s shirt and that the one-eyed fisherman was staring down at him with a curious expression as if he were the most interesting thing in the world.

**_“JONESY!!! JONESY, CAN YOU HEAR US?!?”_ **

“R-Ramirez?… B-Banshee?…” He whimpered.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw his friends and the EGO team looking at him with Ramirez and Banshee both at the front. The soldier watched as the expressions of his closest friends went from horrified and fearful to relieved and hopeful. Seeing their familiar friendly faces, he began feeling safe again.

But when his eyes started following the trail behind him, he felt his heart sink.

Guns, rocket launchers, and piles of red goop and black clothes littered the path. The few Sludges that remained laid injured on the ground. One of them was trying to free his boot from beneath the blonde’s pickaxe that looked to be embedded deep in the ground. Another was completely missing one of his arms.

“Jonesy!” Ramirez called out, regaining his attention. “Put him down! He’s _not_ worth it!”

Jonesy didn’t say anything. He just stared at her, scared and confused. Tears flooded his eyes as he looked at everyone like he was hoping someone would explain what had happened.

“Interesting.” Riptide commented to himself.

The soldier looked back at the ALTER agent as he gradually began processing the way he had been holding him. When it finally dawned on him, he immediately looked down and shuddered. He realized why his instincts had been encouraging him to drop the white haired fisherman the moment he had processed that he was holding something.

Jonesy had been holding Riptide over the side of the mountain as if to drop him, a fall that would’ve killed him instantly.

He immediately spun around and threw him at the remaining Sludges before his trembling caused him to collapse to his knees. Wrapping his arms around himself, the soldier tried to silence the laughing he heard in his head and calm his panicked breathing.

“Truly a fascinating case.” Riptide said as he stood up and dusted himself off. He turned his attention to Turk with a smug smile. “You’ve got quite an unusual ally on your hands.”

“ _Don’t_ talk to him.” Jonesy growled.

“I never expected anyone to display such abilities.” The white haired man stated with a laugh, completely unfazed by the blonde’s aggression.

Placing a hand on the ground, Jonesy began to stand back up.

“Jonesy, _don’t_.” Ramirez ordered. “He’s not worth it.”

“He’ll just come back and-”

“Jonesy.” Turk interrupted.

The soldier directed his attention to him. He looked understandably nervous, but he could also see the concern in the fisherman’s eyes.

“She’s right. He isn’t worth your time.”

**_“They’re lying, Jonesy.”_ **

He looked between Riptide, who was informing the rest of his team to report to the rendezvous point, and the Sludges to his friends and EGO before finally closing his eyes and looking away. They were right. He knew they were right.

**_“If you let him get away, you’re a bigger fool than you already are.”_ **

The group suddenly heard the distant whirring of a helicopter growing louder and louder by the second.

“We may not have achieved what we were initially sent here to do,” Riptide laughed, “but I’m sure the boss won’t mind given the situation. After all, he just _loves_ looking into anomalous properties.”

The choppa flew over to the group and steadied itself to hover above them before a man dressed in a black suit with a white tie, black gloves, black shoes, a full face black mask with black glasses that had white lens, and a backwards black hat that was white at the front with a black llama symbol lowered a rope ladder down to the one eyed fisherman. He climbed on with a chuckle as he looked over to his EGO counterpart.

“We’ll meet again. And next time, you won’t get off so easily.”

The remaining Sludges turned into shapeless masses of red goo, slipped out of their clothes, and sunk into the ground while the ladder Riptide was holding on to was slowly pulled up as the choppa flew away. One of the men that had been pulling up the ladder helped him climb in.

“So? What did you learn?” The pilot inquired.

“More than enough.” Riptide responded with a smirk. “Where do you want me to start?”

The pilot’s black lips curled up into a smug smile.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Jonesy shakingly pulled himself to his feet. He kept his eyes trained on his red goop stained boots, ashamed by his actions under Dark Jonesy’s influence. He could hear the whirring of the choppa gradually getting fainter.

**_“You can still shoot down the helicopter. The Sludges left behind their weapons and ammunition, more than enough to take it down. C’mon, no one’s gonna care if he’s gone. It’ll be easy. In fact, let me do it for you. Just close your eyes and let me take over.”_ **

“Shut up…” The soldier muttered under his breath as he leaned against the mountain and buried his face into his hands. 

He flinched when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Jonesy?”

Jonesy looked up to see Turk by his side again.

“You alright?” The fisherman asked worriedly.

“Uh…” The blonde tried to think of what to say as he wiped away his tears and tried to stop his shaking. “Y-Yeah… I think so… I’m really, really sorry you had to see that side of me… I guess… I guess he just got to me… As a soldier, I should know better…”

Turk gave him an understanding smile as he wrapped his good arm around him and led him back up the trail.

“I won’t lie, seeing you do that was pretty frightening. Even so, it’s alright. Soldier or not, you’re still human. Everyone makes mistakes. As long as you acknowledge them and try to become better, that’s all that matters. Besides, he gets to me too, so you’re not alone there.”

The rest of the group stepped aside to allow them to walk passed them before the medics followed while the EGO leader helped the Default co-leader sit down on one of the stone benches around the fire pit. He took a seat next to the soldier while the medics examined the cut on his cheek.

“Where’s Bonesy?” Jonesy asked Remedy.

“I left him inside the lodge.” Rem assured. “I’ll go get him.”

While she went to retrieve his dog, he looked over at the bearded fisherman next to him.

“You should go back inside. It’s cold up here and you’re still shirtless.”

“I should, but I won’t.”

“You’ll catch a cold.”

“Perhaps, but you clearly need someone to talk to.”

Bonesy darted around Remedy, who decided to go retrieve Turk’s shirt, and ran straight for his master. Leaping onto his lap, he excitedly licked Jonesy’s face, completely ignoring Field Surgeon and Triage Trooper.

“Alright, alright, alright!” Jonesy laughed before holding up his faithful, squirming pet. “I’m happy to see you safe and sound too. But I got grazed by a bullet, so go play with Ramirez and Banshee for a bit.”

Placing his dog back down, he watched as he ran over to Ramirez before allowing his medics to finish patching up his cut.

“Hey,” the soldier began as they turned to walk away, “think you guys and the lifeguards can go get the others?”

“Sure thing.”

After Triage and Field walked away with Sun Strider and Sun Tan Specialist behind them, a rift suddenly opened in front of the sitting men. Both nearly jumped out of their skin when a blue and purple figure with glowing butterfly wings shot out from it and threw their arms around the blonde man.

“Dream?” Jonesy asked.

Pulling away with her hands on his shoulders, Dream looked at her friend with concern all over her face.

“Are you ok?” She inquired worriedly. When he nodded halfheartedly, she turned her attention to Turk who seemed startled and confused. She took her hands off Jonesy’s shoulders before gently placing one on his injured arm. “What about you? How’s the pain? I-I can help you with the healing process so you can-”

“Unnecessary.”

Everyone watched as Luminos stepped out of the rift before closing it behind him with a formal stance. He turned his attention to his student.

“You are attempting to interfere with their affairs again.” The entity stated. “This is exactly what happened after 8-Ball’s confrontation with Scratch. You are far too comfortable with throwing out your powers without hesitation when it is not necessary.”

“But Lumi, this is different!” Dream argued.

“This is true.” Luminos agreed. “In this situation, it is a simple dislocated shoulder and _not_ the possibility of a concussion.”

“It-… But he-… I-… _Ugh!_ ”

“You are acting like an adolescent, my student.”

_“I am not a child!”_

“I was actually referring to teenagers, but that is sufficient as well.”

“It’s you.” Remedy chimed in from the door of the lodge. “You’re the ones who visited 8-Ball.”

“Indeed.” Luminos said. “My apologies that our reunion had to occur under these circumstances. We had planned to return after this situation had been dealt with.”

“Yeah, sorry about that…” Dream apologized sheepishly. “I just had to check on them after what just happened.”

Although he knew what she really meant, Jonesy’s mind went back to what he had done. He could hear Dark Jonesy snicker at him from the back of his mind. He leaned back and sighed.

“I really am a dumbass.” He said.

With a lighthearted laugh, Turk wrapped his arm around the man’s shoulders and pulled him close.

“But you’re _our_ dumbass.”

The soldier looked at the fisherman in surprise before a big, bright smile spread across his face and his eyes shined with happiness.

“Oho!” Jonesy laughed as he sat up straight. “So when did we become friends?”

“Just now!” Turk laughed before looking back at his team. “And I don’t think I’m alone in my assessment.”

Following his gaze, the blonde saw the EGO team nod with 8-Ball giving him a thumbs up while the rest smiled at him. He didn’t think he could get any happier at that moment.

By the time his group began making their way up the mountain, they heard the distant honk of the Battle Bus’s horn.

“Guess you’re getting your wish, Cameo.” Jonesy chuckled. “You’ll get to ride in the Battle Bus.”

He smiled when the fashionista squealed in excitement before noticing Ramirez and Banshee whispering to each other. He had a feeling it was about him and what had happened. Normally, he’d get anxious when he was forced to discuss the topic of Dark Jonesy. This time, however, he felt ready for the questions. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt strangely at ease.

“Well, I guess we should go now.” Dream said. “We’ll come back later. For now, take a bit of a breather.”

With that, she opened a rift back to the In-Between and followed Luminos through it as she waved goodbye. After the rift closed behind them, Ramirez walked over to John.

“Is anyone seriously injured?” She inquired.

John shook his head. “I asked around after ALTER retreated. There’s mostly just some cuts and bruises, a few black eyes and such.”

“Good. We’re taking EGO back to Spawn Island with us. ALTER may be gone, but it’ll be safer for everyone to remain as together as possible. Since there’s so many of us and only two Battle Buses, the bus driver will have to make a few trips while others can use the motorboats. It’ll take awhile, but it may help if some of us go back and forth with the boats to drop some people off on Spawn Island and then come back to Apollo for more.”

As the others were passing around the information to those who weren’t close enough to hear the leader, Turk turned his attention to Jonesy.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Is there any other reason for you being so set on helping us?” The bearded fisherman inquired.

The soldier thought about it for a few seconds before smiling at him.

“There is, yeah.” He chuckled.

“Well, what is it?”

“I guess you could say that out of everyone around me, you were the one who reignited my hope.” The blonde admitted. “A hope that everything will be alright again.”

_‘Not only that.’_ Jonesy thought as Turk smiled at him while the bus driver tried to keep the bus steady enough to let some of them on. _‘Whenever you help me…’_

He helped the fisherman stand up before helping him get on the Battle Bus.

_‘I can’t hear my Dark Reflection talking.’_ ****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a heads up:
> 
> From here, a lot of the excitement caused by ALTER will die down for a while. Future chapters will be focusing on developing Turk and Jonesy's relationship. But don't worry. When the time is right, something will happen. Something important that will drive the plot forward. And when it does, I hope it'll be worth the wait. ;3


	7. A few days on Spawn Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Default leaders feel that it may be too dangerous to immediately send EGO back to Apollo and suggest they stay with them to wait out the aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long.

“And that’s why I can’t touch a blender without a death glare anymore.”

EGO just stared at the man sitting with them.

“You _ate_ Peely?” Outcast asked incredulously.

Jonesy sighed and scratched the back of his head. “Unfortunately, yes. Not proud of what I did either. To say that it wasn’t my brightest moment would be an understatement.”

“Clearly.” Journey agreed.

“Obviously, he hasn’t entirely forgiven me for that.”

“Jonesy, you turned him into a banana smoothie.” Turk reiterated. “I don’t think he’ll forgive you anytime soon.”

“At least he’s forgiven me enough to stop aiming a gun at me 24/7.”

The agents chuckled with the soldier. They were waiting for the medics and lifeguards to finish checking on their people to make sure nothing was wrong beneath the skin. Jonesy had already apologized for how long it was taking, but they had to make sure they were alright.

“So Peely just appears whenever you touch a blender now?” The fisherman questioned.

“Yep. And I won’t lie, sometimes I reach for a banana if I’m trying to make a fruit smoothie just to spite him. It either gets me an even worse death glare or needing to hold him back with my foot while I continue without the banana I reached for.”

“That’s kinda fucked up.” Cameo commented.

“Yeah.” Jonesy agreed sheepishly. “Ramirez tells me that too. Rex finds it funny though.”

“Rex is a weird guy for someone who looks like you.”

_“EGO!”_ Field Surgeon called out. _“You’re next!”_

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


EGO and Jonesy watched as Triage Trooper examined the x-ray of Turk’s arm. 

“Huh. Despite the fact your arm was yanked out of place, your x-rays are more or less fine. Good thing, too. In rare cases, a person will require surgery to fix a dislocated shoulder.”

“How comforting.” The fisherman responded.

“It actually is.” The male medic said as he placed the x-ray down. “Anyways, complete recovery differs from person to person, so we’ll have to monitor that. Once your shoulder has properly healed, you can start your rehabilitation. For now, we’ll give you meds for the pain and request that you refrain from trying to move your arm too much or risk permanent damage.”

“That means no going out onto the field and especially no fishing.” Sun Strider chimed in, smiling when she got a chuckle out of the bearded man.

“I’ll gladly help him with his rehabilitation.” Remedy said. “What about the rest of us?”

“Honestly,” Field Surgeon began, “I’m surprised no one else had something broken. All we found were some big bruises. Rippley was just fine. 8-Ball was the most troublesome to look at because, well, we couldn’t examine him with his helmet on. Once we were able to, we were extra careful in what we were looking for via your medic’s request, but found nothing but bruised ribs and the lacerations we treated earlier. You guys got some kind of guardian angel we should know about?”

Before the amused agents could respond, someone knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” Triage inquired.

Ramirez opened the door and poked her head in.

“Sorry to interrupt,” she began apologetically, “but Banshee and I need to talk to Jonesy.”

Flashing a quick smile at Turk, Jonesy got up and followed his best friend without a word.

“Does it have something to do with what happened earlier?” The fisherman inquired.

The medics and lifeguards just looked at each other. It was all the confirmation he needed.

“Is he in trouble?” He pressed.

“We hope not…” Sun Tan Specialist muttered under his breath. “We really hope not…”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Ramirez and Banshee led their friend back to the house they claimed for the Defaults. Normally when someone pulled the blonde aside to talk about Dark Jonesy, he’d be nervous and mostly uncooperative, but to their surprise, he was being unusually calm.

Once they closed the front door, both women turned to face him, only to see him hold up his hand the moment they tried to speak.

“Yes, he’s still around. Yes, he’s the reason I’ve been acting so strangely. Yes, he was why I was blaming myself for the loss of our friends. Yes, he came out earlier, but claimed to not be in control of me and was just giving my instincts a little “push”. No, I didn’t believe him. No, I don’t hear him at the moment. Yes, I can still _feel_ him, but it’s very faint as if he’s been suppressed.”

The Default leader and second co-leader just stared at him in surprise.

“We done?” Jonesy asked. “Hey, I think we should probably assign roles tomorrow morning.”

“Hold on, Jonesy!” Banshee spoke up. “How are you being so calm about this? How can you act like this isn’t a _big_ issue?”

“Like I said, I can’t hear him right now.”

“How is that possible?” Ramirez inquired.

To their surprise, a fond smile stretched across the blonde’s face.

“It’s because of Turk. I don’t know why, but whenever he helps me, I can’t hear Dark Jonesy. So, I’d like to get back to him. I wanna know what’s so special about him that he can silence _him_.”

Both women looked at each other hesitantly before stepping aside.

“Just be careful.” Ramirez reminded him. “We don’t want to see you get hurt again.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“For everyone’s sake, we really hope so.”

Jonesy started to head for the door when Banshee suddenly grabbed his arm.

“Shit, almost forgot. There was something else we wanted to discuss.”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“I’m sorry, we’re gonna have to do _what_?” Turk questioned incredulously.

“You’re going to have to stay with us for a bit.” Jonesy repeated. “Ramirez and Banshee talked about it and decided it’d be best to wait for a few days before going back. They’ve already asked the others and no one has a problem with it.”

“They asked them, but not us?”

“Hey I’m just the messenger. I didn’t know until they pulled me aside to talk to me.”

“About that…” Turk trailed off for a second. “Were you in trouble for what happened earlier?”

Jonesy smiled at him reassuringly. “I’m not in any trouble. They just wanted to ask a few things.”

“What was it?” The fisherman inquired.

“Doesn’t matter. What matters is that everyone’s alright and that you’re on the road to recovery. Hey, wanna see something?”

When the bearded man nodded, the blonde crouched down in the direction of Bonesy and made an o shape with his fingers.

“Bonesy! Snoot!”

The dog looked over at him and came running full speed. He leapt up and pushed his muzzle in between his master’s fingers with his stubby tail wagging.

“Good boy!” Jonesy praised as he scooped up his excited pet and began cuddling him.

Turk smiled at the pair. “You taught him that?”

“Yep! Took awhile, but he picked it up pretty quickly. Cute, right?”

“Definitely.”

“Soooo about what my friends said,” Jonesy began as he looked back at him, “is that alright with you? I know they didn’t ask you, but I get why they decided to do this. After what just happened, I do agree that we should wait for a few days before taking you and your team back.”

“As much as it bothers me, I can’t fault your logic.” Turk responded with a sigh. “We don’t know if ALTER is still there lying in wait. They’ve already shown that they’re willing to attack us when one of us isn’t ready, so I’ll agree to it. But I’ll still have to tell my team.”

“They deserve to know, but I’m glad you’ll be staying.” The blonde admitted with a smile. “We’ve already made arrangements for you guys. We put aside one of the houses so you’ll have a place to sleep and are willing to send a few of us back to get anything you guys might need.”

“Wow.” The fisherman laughed. “You guys really planned this out.”

“We usually do.” The soldier laughed with him.

Turk smiled. It felt… nice to just sit and talk with him. He loves his job, he really does, but he enjoyed being able to take a bit of a breather.

“I think you’ll find that we’re never dull.” Jonesy said with a grin. “Perhaps strange to you, but at least we’re more fun than you guys.”

“Oh?” The bearded man snickered. “Wanna bet? You guys don’t know us, either.”

“Who’s fault is that?” The soldier questioned with a smirk as Bonesy climbed on to his shoulders.

“Quiet you. Point is, we can be plenty fun. Or at least, they can. According to them, I’m the boring one. Remedy thinks I can be fun though. She says I just need to get out of my shell.”

“We can fix that. Give us some time and you’ll be as fun as us.”

“And do what? Ride rockets?”

“That is _awesome_ and you know it!”

“Whatever you say, Jonesy.” Turk laughed before getting up. “Anyways, I need to tell my team what we’re being _forced_ to do.”

“It’s just a suggestion.” Jonesy reminded him with a slight chuckle.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“Unfortunately, your earpieces were destroyed.” Red Jade explained as she put down the duffle bag she was carrying. “Some of your clothing and equipment were also damaged in the battle, but we managed to find a few things that weren’t.”

“Thank you, Red.” Ramirez said before turning to the others she sent. “Same goes for the rest of you. Thank you for going back despite the possible risks.”

“I’m used to going into dangerous situations.” John explained casually.

“Wasn't anything I couldn't handle.” Batman stated matter-of-factly.

“Nothing new for me.” Black Widow commented as she handed 8-Ball his things.

“Thanks for this, guys.” Remedy chimed in. “We really do appreciate this.”

“We’ll leave you guys to get settled in.” Jonesy said before smiling. “See you in the morning.”

Turk smiled at him as he left with his people.

“You’ve been smiling more than usual today.” Outcast giggled. “And most has been directed at Jonesy.”

“So?” Turk questioned.

“He’s probably just grateful that Jonesy was so keen on repaying him.” Remedy said.

“It’s just… unusual.” The fisherwoman stated. “I’ve only seen him smile this much whenever he catches an impressive fish or after a successful mission.”

“Let’s just go to bed.” The bearded man said with a yawn. “It’s been a long day.”

Remedy looked up towards the stairs in time to catch a glimpse of 8-Ball disappearing around the corner on the top floor.

“I think I’ll bunk with Eights.” The medic said as she picked up the bag with her things. “I want to make sure he’ll be ok.”

“Alright. We’ll work out who bunks with who.” The fisherman responded.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


_Day 1_

_8:00 AM_

_“Alright everyone, gather around! We’re deciding who does what today!”_

With a groan, Turk cracked an eye open. 

_“Ok! We’re gonna be going over who’s being assigned to patrol duty first. … We’ll start with the Spawn Island patrol first.”_

Begrudgingly, he pulled off the covers before flinching with a pained hiss when he felt a surge of pain course through his arm. He reached for the painkillers he was given, popped a few into his mouth, and swallowed them dry.

_“Damn it, Bats! We appreciate your willingness to patrol, but let others have a turn! … No I’m not complaining! … Look, we’ll just take volunteers for this! Anyone willing to take Batman’s spot, raise your hand!”_

Turk chuckled at what he could hear was going on outside. Looking down at the clothes he held in his hand, he wondered how messy he’d look by the time he was done.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Jonesy breathed out a sigh of relief. It had taken at least half an hour just to narrow down who would take the Bat’s place, but they finally got one.

_“Alright, Reaps! You know what to do! Now that that’s over, let’s move on to the Apollo patrol!”_

“This happen every morning?”

The soldier turned around and smiled. “Oh hey, guys! Nice of you to finally join us.”

Turk rolled his eyes with a smile while most of his team chuckled. “You didn’t answer the question.”

“Pretty much. Normally, we would’ve just figured out who’s gonna be watching the Tomato cult and the D word, but after learning about ALTER, we’ve made new roles to fill out.”

**_“ASSIGN THE DAMN PATROL ALREADY!”_ ** Red Knight shouted from the back.

**_“DON’T MAKE ME GET HUMAN RESOURCES AGAIN!”_** Banshee shouted back threateningly.

“Human Resources?” Journey asked.

“You’ll probably learn later. It’s more fun that way.” The soldier explained with a laugh. _“Anyways, back to the Apollo patrol! After some consideration, today’s Apollo patrol is Shadow Ops, Nara, Taro, Sanctum, Tsuki, Bandolier, Bandolette, and Armadillo! We’ll leave it up to you guys to decide who’ll be in your squads!”_

“They’re pretty organized about this.” Outcast whispered to Cameo.

“Why not decide the squads for them?” The fashionista whispered back.

“Maybe so they can decide who’s best to work with themselves?”

_“Chief Hopper!”_ Jonesy called out. _“You’re watching the D word today!”_

_“I’m on it!”_ Hopper exclaimed before rushing to his post.

_“And finally, for the cult, we’ve got… Oh shit, it’s Grill Sergeant!”_

**_“WHAT?!”_ ** The fry cook exclaimed in disbelief while Sizzle Sgt. bursted into laughter.

_“I won’t lie,”_ Jonesy began with a laugh, _“this whole time, we’ve just been using a randomizer to choose who does this task because no one wants anything to do with those crazy fucks! But fuck it, since you worked so hard to get away from them, Batman is now assigned to this shit! Have fun guys! Dismissed!”_

EGO watched as the gathered Atheneans walked off. Batman glared at the blonde for a few moments before walking away.

“You sure know how to dish out orders, Jonesy.” Turk commented with a chuckle.

He gave him a casual shrug. “Well, I _am_ one of the co-leaders. I’d like to think that the ability to give orders is required to fulfill that role.”

“Well yeah, but-… wait, what?”

“I’m a co-leader, fisherman.” Jonesy repeated with a laugh. “So is Banshee. Whenever Ramirez isn’t around, leadership falls to one of us.”

The agents just stared at him in surprise.

“You would’ve known that had you thought to ask us.” He explained before giving them a playful wink and walking away.

Journey looked over at Rippley. “Did you know about this?”

“Glup glup.”

“Didn’t ask, eh? Guess I should’ve figured.”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


**_“SOMEONE FIGHT ME!!”_ ** Red Knight screeched. **_“I WANT TO FIGHT!!”_ **

“RK, most of us are tired from yesterday!” Aerial Assault Trooper shouted.

“Oh my fucking God, not again.” Rox groaned as she face palmed.

“I’m guessing this happens a lot?” Turk asked the exasperated pilot.

“More than you think.” She responded irritably. “I’ll get Human Resources to fix this.”

“What does that even mean for you guys?” Journey inquired. 

“Anytime someone’s causing trouble, we take them to Black Widow to get their ass kicked.” The pilot explained.

“Don’t you think that’s a little… unnecessary?” Remedy asked.

“Usually, just the threat alone is enough to make them behave.”

“Still sounds unnecessary.” The EGO medic repeated.

“Sounds like a challenge.” 8-Ball said suddenly with his Bank Shots in hand.

“What kind of flowers should we send to your funeral?” Black Knight asked.

“His _what?_ ” Rem questioned incredulously.

“No offense, but he wouldn’t stand a chance against Black Widow. Especially in his current state.”

“How can you be so sure he’d lose?” Outcast challenged.

Motioning EGO to follow, Black Knight and Rox walked over to the still battle hungry Red Knight and grabbed her. With the agents behind them, the duo dragged her to Black Widow who was in the middle of getting Slurp Juice from a makeshift Durr Burger restaurant.

“Widow, we need you to fight RK.” Black Knight said to the slightly confused super spy.

“Why?” Black Widow asked.

“We’re trying to show 8-Ball why it wouldn’t be a good idea to try to fight you.”

The red headed woman casually shrugged before standing up. “Alright then.”

Exactly half a minute later, EGO watched as Red Knight slammed face first into the ground with multiple new dents and scratches in her armor while Black Widow casually sat back down and took a drink of her Slurp Juice. Triage Trooper and Field Surgeon grumbled as they walked over to the unconscious blood knight, grabbed her by her ankles, and started dragging her away. As they passed Remedy, they gave her a look that just screamed “you’ve got it easy”.

“Still wanna fight Black Widow, Eights?” Black Knight inquired.

8-Ball reached for his Bank Shots before he received a smack on the back of his head.

“You are _not_ fighting her in this condition.” Remedy scolded.

“He’s got guts, I’ll give him that.” Rox sighed sympathetically.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


_Day 2_

_2:46 PM_

Turk sat off to the side smiling as his friends were having their own interactions with the others. Meanwhile, he was content with having some time to himself. He engaged in conversation with anyone who approached him, but didn’t actively seek it out.

“You sure you’re ok, Jonesy?”

“Giddy-Up, I’m fine. I just want to be alone right now.”

Turk straightened up and looked in the direction of the conversation in time to see Jonesy trying to walk away from Giddy-Up and Yee-Haw as they followed him. He noticed the tension in the man’s shoulders.

“Did we do something wrong?” Yee-Haw inquired. “We saw that flash of hurt in your eyes when you looked at us.”

The blonde groaned as he picked up the pace. “I’m going to the D word’s holding cell, so-”

_“Bye Jonesy!”_ Both exclaimed as they quickly walked away.

Rising to his feet, Turk quickly jogged over to the man and placed his hand on his shoulder. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the soldier spun around and knocked his hand off.

_“I said-”_ He froze when he saw who was behind him. “O-Oh, Turk! I-I’m sorry. I just thought-”

“It’s ok. You just startled me.”

Both men fell into a brief awkward silence for a few moments before Turk cleared his throat.

“You uh… You wanna tell me what’s wrong?” He asked.

“… Yeah… Let’s go somewhere private first…”

Jonesy led the fisherman to the Demogorgon’s holding cell where they saw Venturion standing guard. As they got closer, the soldier jerked his head to the side. The man unlocked the door and stepped aside. Once inside, the blonde flipped on the lights as Venturion closed the door behind them before taking his friend halfway down the steps where they sat down.

“What’s wrong, Jonesy?” Turk inquired, not wanting to waste time.

“… It’s just… It hurts…” Jonesy forced out as he allowed tears to flood his eyes. “It hurts to look around and see people who look just like your lost friends, but aren’t them… Whenever I see Giddy-Up and Yee-Haw, it hurts to see that they look exactly like Spitfire and Headhunter… I… I just miss them so much… A-And the worst part is that I can’t talk to them about this…”

“But why? It’s not like they wouldn’t understand.”

“How can you tell someone that them being lookalikes of your dead friends is hurting you?! You can’t! I-I don’t want to put that in their heads, Turk! I don’t want them to feel guilty over something they can’t control! I just-”

“Jonesy.” Turk interrupted before pulling him close. “It’s ok. Just breathe and let it out.”

Leaning against the fisherman, Jonesy started to cry. He could feel the EGO leader rubbing his back comfortingly as his body shook from his sobs. It hurt him so much having to pretend his late friends’ lookalikes didn’t bother him, but he didn’t know what else to do.

“It’s alright, Jonesy.” Turk reassured gently. “I’m here. Just let it out.”

“I-I don’t know if I’m s-strong enough to do this…” Jonesy confessed.

“ _Yo sé que tú puedes. Creo en ti._ ”

“I don’t understand you…”

“I know you can do it.” The bearded man repeated in English. “I believe in you.”

Jonesy looked at Turk in surprise for a few moments.

“You… Th-Thank you…”

“You’re welcome.”

For a while, the two just sat together in silence when Jonesy remembered something important.

“I meant to tell you this earlier,” the blonde began, “but the Apollo patrol squads from yesterday never came back.”

“That’s not normal for you guys?” Turk inquired.

“Whenever we send out patrols, we’re constantly switching them if there’s nothing to report. But… we haven’t even heard from them since they left. And if we don’t get anything soon, we’re gonna be forced to extend your stay. You’d need to contact your boss from here if that happens. Bats should have something if it comes down to it.”

Seeing the concern on his friend’s face, Turk tried to give Jonesy a reassuring smile. “Perhaps something’s just blocking the signal.”

“That didn’t help like you wanted it to…”

“Hey, I’m trying. Regardless, I’m sure they’re ok.”

“How? You psychic?”

“I just have a feeling. Just trust me on this.”

Jonesy stared at Turk for a few seconds before hesitantly nodding.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


_Day 3_

_5:38 PM_

“Let me get this straight.” Outcast said. “You, a certified badass, is the main petsitter?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.” John confirmed as he brushed Bonesy’s fur. “Whenever the owner is busy with something, they bring their pets to me. It was Ramirez’s idea.”

“But why?” Cameo asked. “Why not be assigned to patrol?”

“We didn’t have a need for patrol duty until we learned about ALTER. She decided to suggest this because she learned about my wife’s last wish.”

“What was it?” Turk inquired.

“She wanted me to find something else to love.” The retired hitman explained. “Because my car didn’t count, she left me a Beagle puppy, but it was later killed by the son of my ex-boss after having it not even a day. I went on to kill him, his dad, and all the men sent after me.”

“I would’ve done the same if some asshole killed my dog.” Journey commented.

“Hold on.” Remedy spoke up. “You said your wife’s 'last wish'. John, is… is your wife…”

John said nothing.

“I’m so sorry, John.”

Bonesy whimpered and nuzzled into the hitman as another dog with white fur trotted over to them and began whimpering as well. John reached down and began petting the newcomer.

“Ramirez also decided to let me keep this one. They called him Snowball and said they couldn’t find anyone willing to adopt him. To help me honor my wife’s wish, she wanted me to keep him and suggested that helping the others take care of their pets could provide some form of therapy.”

_“Hey guys! I have awesome news!”_

Bonesy shot out of the hitman’s lap and made a mad dash towards his master. Jonesy scooped him up and held him close before looking up to give Turk a big smile.

“Now I’m _convinced_ you’re a fucking psychic.” The blonde said with a laugh.

The fisherman held back a snicker. “Why?”

“You were right about something blocking the signal. Turns out, ALTER had left a parting gift.”

“What was it?” The bearded man asked, now more serious.

“An EMP.” The soldier answered. “A strong one too. Tsuki was affected heavily by it. She came to after the others deactivated it. She says she’s fine, but we’re still gonna check her out.”

“And how is this 'awesome' news?” John inquired as he stood up.

“It means that we don’t have to extend EGO’s stay and everyone can go back to the island again since that EMP was the only thing out of the ordinary.”

EGO breathed a sigh of relief. 

“The boss is probably waiting for our report on why communication stopped, but if you guys hadn’t gotten us out of there, we would’ve been left without any way to call for help.” Turk said with a relieved smile. “I’m glad they’re more or less alright.”

Jonesy smiled at the agents. “Let’s get you back to Apollo.”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Midas stared disapprovingly into the camera as he leaned back in his chair.

_“I would like to know why in the time you have been MIA you didn’t attempt to contact me.”_

“Our earpieces were damaged in an attack, sir.” Turk explained. “Because of that, we were unable to send in a report.”

Midas raised an eyebrow.  _“An attack, you say? Who managed to catch some of my best agents off guard? And what happened to your arm, Agent Turk?”_

“ALTER, sir. They launched a surprise attack a few days ago and had us at their mercy. Riptide figured out I knew something and tried to get the info out of me. When I refused, he dislocated my shoulder. He would’ve done more damage, but luckily, the Atheneans stepped in to help us. They knew about them, but had found out on their own. A squad of them had gone to Apollo one night for an errand when they discovered ALTER at Dirty Docks.”

_“Hmm… Interesting… And you said they stepped in to aid you?”_

Turk nodded. “The one named Jonesy had offered him and his people to help us even the score after they found out about ALTER, but I refused it. Luckily for us, he refused to stand by and 'wait for us to die'. To ease his mind, their leader Ramirez had been sending out patrols to watch over us. Because of this, we were able to survive the surprise attack. They drove ALTER off the island, but Riptide promised they’d be back. The Atheneans then took us to the island we moved them to so they could take a better look at our injuries. That’s where we’ve been staying the past few days. During that time, they sent two squads to Apollo to see if it was safe to send us back. This group discovered that ALTER had left behind a powerful EMP. It wasn’t until today that they managed to find and deactivate it. Had they not taken us back to their island, we would’ve been left defenseless.”

Midas hummed in thought. This was quite an unexpected development.

_“It would seem we have found an asset to our cause. Let these Atheneans do as they please as long as it doesn’t threaten the island. I will think further on this development. For now, you and 8-Ball are on medical leave until you both recover from your injuries. Journey will take over.”_

“Yes sir. Agent Turk signing out.”

After ending the video call, Turk leaned back in his chair and sighed before his phone chimed. He pulled it out to see he received a text message. When he saw who it was from, a fond smile stretched across his face.


	8. Appealing company

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Turk the workaholic leader has to find ways to occupy his time during medical leave. Although he's unable to do his usual hobbies, he thankfully has someone who's willing to keep him company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry this took so long. Life got a little crazy. Regardless, go into this with the knowledge that this was written before season 5 began and that my story is an AU.

“I’m so fucking _bored_.” Turk groaned as he laid in the grass. He glared at his companion when he heard a snicker. “ _Cállate._ At least _you’re_ not the one who can’t do much.”

“Look on the bright side!” Jonesy exclaimed with a grin. “You’ve got me while everyone’s out!”

He rested his head back on the grass as the blonde laid down next to him. He wasn’t used to having this much time off with nothing to do. He couldn’t go fishing and trying to have a conversation with 8-Ball always felt like talking with a brick wall. It’s not like he could anyways with his helmet needing repairs.

“Ya know, Outcast told me you’re a workaholic.” Jonesy commented. “She said that they usually have to convince you to take a break because you wanna be thorough to the point you stay up late.”

“I’m not a workaholic.” Turk responded. “There’s nothing wrong with being thorough. Besides, I can’t let the boss think we’re incompetent in any way, shape, or form.”

“I don’t know your boss, so I can’t exactly say my opinion on him without coming off as rude. But still, I don’t think this kind of pressure is healthy. Don’t you guys ever get a break?”

“When we earn it.”

Jonesy sighed as he leaned up to a sitting position. “I’m guessing you normally have things to do during those times?”

“I either go fishing with Outcast, fish alone, or give the motorboats a maintenance check.” Turk said with a shrug.

“No wonder you’re so bored!” The soldier exclaimed. “You have a really limited list!”

The fisherman shrugged again. He had a preference for doing things he was comfortable with, so there weren’t a lot of things he liked to do. Maybe Remedy was right. Maybe he should try to get out of his comfort zone. But because of his shoulder, what could he do now?

“I’m used to staying in my comfort zone…” The EGO leader admitted. “Even if I wanted to try something new, I can’t do much of anything right now.”

He felt his cheeks flush as he watched the man give him an understanding smile.

“I never said I was going to make you do something new with me right now. When you’re up for it, I’m sure we can find _something_ that you’d be interested in trying.”

Turk thought for a bit. “Well… Being around you seems appealing right now.”

For a brief moment, the fisherman was positive he saw the surprised blonde’s cheeks turn pink. Chalking it up to being part of his imagination, he awkwardly tried to push himself up to a sitting position with one hand before his friend helped him.

“You’re serious, right? You’re not joking?” Jonesy questioned.

“I don’t make many jokes.” Turk answered with a small smile.

Turk’s smile widened when he saw Jonesy smile back at him brightly. Although he wasn’t sure why, he had to admit that he liked seeing that smile. Especially when it was directed at him.

“So what should we do? I have a few suggestions.”

“Let’s hear 'em.”

The suggestions Jonesy began listing were surprisingly simple and less exciting than Turk was expecting. Watch a movie, grab a drink, talk, and a few other suggestions that didn’t stray too far from his comfort zone. He suspected that he was trying to avoid overwhelming him with something so drastically new that it would turn him away from even thinking about leaving his comfort zone again.

“So,” Jonesy began, “what would you like to do?”

The EGO leader began thinking. After all the stress they’ve gone through, any of the blonde’s suggestions would do. Noticing the patient smile on his friend’s face, he smiled back with an idea in mind.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Turk sat at a table waiting anxiously for Jonesy. After an attempt to get burgers resulted in Grill Sergeant accidentally burning them after he tried to show off, they had instead decided to opt for pizza. He had initially thought nothing of it until he saw the uncomfortable look on his friend’s face. When he asked why, it was at that moment he learned that the best pizza came from the last group anyone wanted anything to do with; the Tomato cult. Despite the man’s best efforts, he wasn’t able to talk the soldier out of looking for other options or being the one to ask them. The EGO leader was left at their table with the Default co-leader stating that he’d hopefully be back.

That had been about 10 minutes ago. By all means, it wasn’t a long time to be gone for a single box of pizza, but with what little Turk knew about the cult, it was long enough to make him concerned. He was about to go check on Jonesy when he finally saw him coming back with both a pizza box in hand and a very confused and uncomfortable look on his face.

“What happened?” The fisherman inquired.

“When I entered their makeshift Tomato Temple, they just… stared at me…” The blonde explained. “They handed me a pizza without any special favors thankfully, but as I was leaving, they suddenly wished me good luck. Is there something I should know?”

Turk stared at Jonesy in utter confusion. Wish him luck? What reason would he need luck? Not really knowing what to say, he just shrugged. They sat down and debated on whether or not they were talking about ALTER’s promise to return as they started to dig into the pizza. As the debate continued however, they found themselves gradually going off topic.

“So how long have you and Outcast been friends?” Jonesy inquired. “The two of you seem incredibly close.”

Turk held back a snicker. He was waiting for this question.

“What’s so funny?”

“Well,” the fisherman began, trying not to laugh, “we’ve been ‘friends’ since she was born. Which makes sense since, ya know, she’s my little sister.”

The leader bursted out laughing as the blonde, who had been taking a drink of his Slurp Juice, immediately spat it out on to the ground like a water gun before looking at him as if he just said the most ridiculous thing ever.

“She’s your _what?!_ ”

“You’re not the first to think that we’re just friends!”

“How much younger is she than you?”

“About a couple of years. It was quite a surprise to see that she had become a member of my team, but we try not to let the fact we’re related get in the way of our duties. Doesn’t mean we won’t go out of our way to keep each other safe.”

Jonesy smiled at him. “Blood is thicker than water. A respectable ideal for a pair of agents that are also siblings.”

Turk briefly smiled back before it fell. He wanted to ask something he knew would bring up bad memories, but it was killing him since he was told this. He had to know.

“I apologize for bringing this up, but…” The fisherman paused for a bit. “Who was the one who had been corrupted by the cube?”

Almost immediately, Turk watched Jonesy’s cheerful attitude shatter to pieces. He could make out the faint sparkles of tears in his eyes. He moved to sit next to him before placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder.

Jonesy looked back at him. He _knew_ he didn’t have to tell him if he didn’t want to. Turk would undoubtedly understand this. But still, there was something therapeutic about talking about what bothered him. Taking a deep breath, he placed his hand over the one on his shoulder.

“Deadfire.” The soldier forced out. “His name was Deadfire. He came to Athena after Calamity contacted him during Halloween to see if he could give us a hand when the cube dissolved into a place we called Loot Lake before lifting the house that was there into the sky. When he arrived, the cube struck down the Battle Bus he was on. Deadfire protected everyone inside it after realizing that the cube monsters were close by and rushed him. Cal was so worried until we got to him and found him holding his own. Dude was a _beast_. Turns out, he had taught her everything he knew. She was his best student. Deadfire even showed us a few things. With his help, we managed to protect our island and each other. But when the cube was losing power, as a last act of defiance, it tried to strike one of us with what little corrupting power it had left. It was aiming for Calamity, but…”

“Deadfire pushed her out of the way, didn’t he?” Turk asked.

The blonde nodded. “After we were forced into a weird dimension that we later learned was called the In-Between, he began acting differently. Deadfire was more quick to anger, more distant, and more prone to violence. When we finally tried to confront him about his behavior, with what little coherence he had left, he warned us that he was losing himself to the cube’s power and to stay away from him. We did everything we could think of in an attempt to save him, but… nothing worked. Eventually, we just… we lost him… Deadfire was gone, and in his place was his corrupted self. And the nightmare with the cube monsters started all over again with him now having the power to summon and control them. It seemed like no one could get close enough to him to stop him until we realized that Calamity herself was the only one who could get within touching distance. So… we were forced to do something we hope we never have to do again…”

“You guys sent Calamity to deal with him?…”

“We didn’t have a choice… At the very least, we were hoping she could reach the real Deadfire… As you can guess, she couldn’t… After we heard a gunshot, the monsters just disintegrated into thin air. We rushed to where they were to find Calamity holding Deadfire’s body, wailing that she couldn’t save him and had no choice… We buried him where we first met him… We thought we could’ve done more until Dream came along… One day, we found her at Deadfire’s grave and after explaining what had happened, she turned to us and said that there was nothing we could’ve done to save him as she could still feel that the Deadfire we knew was far too gone. It apparently didn’t help that he’d been carrying around a chunk of the cube on his back. She said he was beyond hope… She mourned with us afterwards, saying she was sorry we had to go through that… Calamity still has Deadfire’s hat, an indirect constant reminder of our failure…”

Jonesy felt Turk pull him into a hug. 

“I’m sorry I made you relive that moment…” The fisherman apologized. “You can always talk to me if you need to…”

Jonesy nodded sadly. “I know. But it wouldn’t be fair to you if I always make you the one I vent to. I don’t want to burden you.”

“Jonesy, we’ve talked about this.”

“No, not that kind of burden. I just mean that you and your team already have your own problems to deal with right now, so I don’t want to recklessly add mine to the pile.”

“Then why not talk about it with your other friends?”

Jonesy opened his mouth to respond, but closed it after a few seconds. That was a good question. Why didn’t he try to talk about it with them? They understood his situation more than anyone ever could.

“I… don’t know.” He admitted before scratching his head in confusion. “I guess it’s the same response I gave you, but… in a different way?”

Turk smiled gently at him. The soldier was truly unlike anyone he’s ever met.

“Hey Turk,” Jonesy began, pulling him out of his thoughts, “why did you want to help me so much that one time? You know, that day you showed up for that fake visit?”

The fisherman froze.

“It was pretty obvious to us that the only reason you guys showed up that day was because of me. So… I just wanted to know why.”

Turk looked down and started to think. He never really understood why he was so insistent on figuring out what was wrong with him that day. It wasn’t from a lack of trying either. He genuinely didn’t know. Why _did_ he want to help him so bad?

“To be honest, I don’t know why myself. I haven’t been able to figure it out. Maybe it was because I couldn’t stand to see someone so…”

“Depressed?”

“Emotionally hurt. Perhaps I couldn’t stand to see so much pain in your eyes and just wanted to alleviate at least some of it.”

He had to admit that it did sound plausible. He never did like to see anyone hurt.

“But why me, a total stranger at the time?”

Turk just shrugged in response. He was still trying to figure it out himself, but he was sure he just gave himself a promising start. Smiling at the blonde, he made a mental note that he just might finally figure it out if he continued being around his new friend, a thought that made him inexplicably happy.

“Regardless of your reason, I’m glad you did.” Jonesy said as he finally smiled back. “If you hadn’t, we wouldn’t even be able to have this conversation in the first place and I might be in a darker place both mentally and emotionally.”

Both broke out into wide grins. The EGO leader couldn’t help but find the co-leader’s cheerfulness infectious. His face was actually starting to hurt from how much he had been smiling. He could barely remember the last time that had happened.

“Ya know, for someone who says he was called the less fun member of EGO, I’m actually having a blast just talking with you.” The soldier commented casually.

“Good thing too because I still can’t use my arm too much.” Turk said with a laugh. “Oh how bored you would be.”

“I can totally enjoy myself without moving!”

“Yeah right. Whenever I see you, you’re always doing something.”

“It’s called _relaxing_.” Jonesy shot back teasingly. “You should try it. I still have that movie we could watch.”

Turk rolled his eyes playfully before motioning for him to lead the way. He couldn’t deny that he was actually enjoying himself. He listened as Jonesy briefly explained the movie he wanted to show him, which turned out to be the one the actors of the Atheneans had worked on back on their island. He didn’t watch many action movies, let alone superhero themed movies, but he was willing to give it a watch.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“He’s with Jonesy?” Remedy asked incredulously. 

8-Ball nodded casually. It’s not like he actually cared that his leader decided to go off with their new friend. He wasn’t able to be around him regardless as they had determined his helmet and armor were too damaged to be fixed by them alone, leaving him to seclude himself in a barrack with his only visitor being their medic. He could hardly see out of the damn thing anyways.

Eights didn’t mind this isolated period though. He enjoyed being alone from time to time, but he also found that he enjoyed the black haired woman’s company just as much. He will admit that he despised the fact that he now had to wait even longer to be back out on the field of duty, but if Remedy always came by to keep him company, he would tolerate it if only for her. This period of isolation would also prove useful for him to try to figure out why he’s been enjoying her presence more than he originally did.

“You’re deep in your own head again, Eights.” Remedy said with a cute giggle, pulling the ninja out of his thoughts. “I was trying to tell you something.”

8-Ball tilted his head to the side, silently asking her to repeat her words.

“I just wanted to say that I don’t understand why you hide your face so much. I actually think you’re really handsome without your helmet. However, I know it’s not up to me to decide when or if you should take it off, so I’m not forcing you to do so. I simply want to know why.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. Her compliment wasn’t the first time he’s heard a woman say something about how good he looks, but it is the first time someone has waited this long to bring it up. She really is something special.

“In this line of work, I find concealing one’s identity protects their allies and themselves from those who wish to seek revenge on a personal level.” He explained with a shrug as he absentmindedly ran his fingers through his black hair.

“Oh… Sorry that I had to remove your helmet then.” The medic said apologetically.

8-Ball waved his hand dismissively. “I do not mind that you found out.”

The ninja watched the surprise and confusion appear on the woman’s face. He inwardly cringed at being so open with his thoughts, but he trusted her. He just wasn’t sure how to express it with his emotional limitations.

“I um… Huh…” Remedy tried to find the right words to say. “Alright then… Regardless, even if you don’t mind the fact that I know how your face looks, I still won’t tell anyone. A promise is still a promise. But… why am I different?”

8-Ball just shrugged in response. He still wasn’t sure what he was feeling when it came to her, but he was starting to believe he shouldn’t fight it. When he saw her give him a gentle smile, he felt his heart skip a beat. He had already confirmed that there was nothing wrong with his heart after bringing it up to Triage Trooper and Field Surgeon when they were examining him, but he didn’t understand why they started snickering and refused to say what was actually wrong.

“I’ll grab you something to eat real quick.” Rem said with a smile. “After I come back, we can go over some activities you can do despite your injuries.”

When he nodded, the medic got up and headed for the door. She could feel his gaze following her as she left, something she had grown accustomed to to the point she could even feel it through his helmet.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


_11:30 PM_

Outcast stood by the illuminated entrance of the barracks looking down at her phone. When she heard footsteps gradually getting closer, she looked up before holding up her hand upon seeing the bright light from a phone’s flashlight feature.

“You’re very late.” The fisherwoman said.

“I didn’t know I had a curfew.” Turk responded as he walked past her, turning off the light as she began following him.

“You didn’t tell us you’d be out by the time we’d get back.”

“I told 8-Ball. Besides, I didn’t know I’d be out so long.”

Outcast giggled. “Should’ve known Jonesy would just whisk you away. So what’d you do that caused you to be gone so late? Did you guys, ya know-”

She laughed when he spun around to glare daggers at her with a bright red blush on his face before she could finish. It was so easy to fluster her brother.

“I swear to God I will skin you like a fish if you finish that sentence!” He warned.

“Chill Turk. I’m just messing with you. But seriously though, what’d you guys do?”

Outcast listened to everything Turk said him and Jonesy had done together for the day. She had to admit that it sounded like he had actually had fun. But when he explained the story of Deadfire, her heart ached.

“ _Dios mío_ … That’s… I don’t even know what to say…” Outcast remarked sadly.

Turk nodded in agreement. “I felt so awful making him relive that moment…”

“Must’ve accepted what happened to some degree to tell you so openly.” The fisherwoman commented. “So the movies he had kept you out this late?”

“Yeah. You already know I don’t watch many action movies, but I have to admit that those were pretty good.”

“I’m just glad you listened to Remmie and got out of your shell for the day.” She admitted with a genuinely happy smile. “I understand you want to be the best agent you can be, but you still have to allow yourself to have some fun every now and then. Perhaps Jonesy can succeed where I have failed.”

“I can be fun too, ya know.” The fisherman shot back. “I just-”

“Don’t know how to find a damn balance between work and play? We’ve noticed.”

“ _Cállate_. Jonesy said he had fun.”

“Because you went with him for the day instead of moping around from boredom!”

Turk groaned while Outcast laughed. He knew she was right though. He never did know how to find a balance with work and free time. However, he wouldn’t admit that to her face since he knew she’d forever hold that over his head.

“… I had fun with him…” He admitted silently.

“I can tell.” She responded before giving him a wink. “Don’t worry, _hermano_. Next time Midas asks about you when you’re out with Jonesy, we’ll cover for you again.”

Turk looked at her with wide eyes. “Oh God, he asked for me?!”

“More of where you were, but yeah. We lied and said you were sleeping because your meds had made you sleepy. Obviously they don’t, but we weren’t gonna tell him you weren’t here.”

“Fuck…”

“We’ve got this, Turk. Just leave it to us. You go have fun with the hot blonde and we’ll cover for you.”

The leader just stared at her in surprise.

“What? You know it’s true.” She snickered as she folded her arms and leaned against the nearest surface.

“Wha-?! _N-No I don’t!_ ”

“Turk, you’re blushing.”

_“Goodnight, Outcast!”_

Outcast watched with amusement as Turk practically ran for his barrack with his face as red as his overalls. She smirked.

This was going to be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Outcast being Turk's younger sister was an idea that had been on my mind for awhile before it finally got added in. I guess an explanation for previous chapters referring to them as friends could be that it was from the Atheneans' perspective or something.


	9. Rehabilitation and realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that EGO's leader has finally completed his healing, he can take the next step in getting back to work. Unbeknownst to everyone, an unexpected development is around the corner.

Turk watched anxiously as Remedy examined the most recent x-ray of his arm. He briefly glanced at Outcast who was standing next to him before looking back. 

Eight weeks. Eight damn weeks of wearing a sling and being forced to find ways to occupy his time. He was itching to be done with his dislocated shoulder already and get back to work. That’s not to say he hadn’t been enjoying Jonesy keeping him company and helping him kill time, however. If he were to be honest, he’d admit that the wait was far more bearable thanks to him when compared to the other instances he had to take medical leave.

“Well?” Turk asked anxiously.

Remedy held the x-ray up towards the light for a few more moments before turning her attention back to him with a smile.

“Your shoulder’s fine.”

The fisherman let out a relieved sigh as he flopped on to his back on the medical bed. Finally! His shoulder was better.

“ _However_ , you’re still not quite done with the healing process.” The medic informed him.

“What?” He groaned irritably.

“Rehabilitation, remember?” Outcast reminded him with a sympathetic smile.

Turk groaned as he leaned back up. He forgot about that. Burying his face into his good hand, he sighed as he began mentally preparing himself for whatever was needed to get back to work faster.

Just as Rem was about to say something, Turk’s phone chimed. He pulled it out and gave a small smile after reading the message. When he realized Outcast was trying to read it as well, he quickly put his phone away.

“Jonesy’s asking for an update.” He explained. He glared at his sister when he saw her smirk. “Don’t look at me like that! He’s just being a friend!”

“ _Suuuuure._ ” The fisherwoman giggled.

“That’s enough, Outcast.” Remedy spoke up. “I’d be concerned if Jonesy didn’t ask. Regardless, we’re going to start your rehabilitation soon Turk. I know you want to get back to work ASAP.”

Turk just nodded. Why couldn’t Outcast just leave him alone when it came to Jonesy?

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“Turk, stop raising your shoulders.”

“I feel so stupid…”

Remedy sighed as she placed a hand on her leader’s shoulder to stop him. They were starting off with the shoulder blade squeeze, but no matter how many times she reminded him, Turk kept raising his shoulders. She knew he felt uncomfortable with this, but he had to do it.

“Take five.” She said with another sigh.

Turk sat down and sighed. He rubbed his right shoulder with a frown. He was confident about this at first, but when he actually started it, he began feeling awkward. It wasn’t an embarrassing exercise, yet it felt like his stomach was in knots. He felt Rem place a hand on his back to comfort him, but it wasn’t enough.

“Everything alright?”

Both agents looked up at their newcomer.

“Jonesy?” Both said in unison.

Jonesy tilted his head with a look of concern. “Outcast texted me where you two were for Turk’s rehabilitation exercises, so I decided to drop by and see how it was going. Doesn’t look like it’s going too well, though. Something happen?”

“Turk’s uncomfortable with the exercise.” Remedy explained. “He says he feels stupid when he tries to squeeze his shoulder blades together.”

The blonde hummed with a look of understanding as he walked over to them. Taking a seat next to the fisherman, he leaned back and looked up at the clear blue sky.

“Ya know,” he began with a slight chuckle in his voice, “I once dislocated a shoulder back home. I was chasing Spitfire up the side of a hill when I had the _brilliant_ idea to stand on a nearby shopping cart. I guess I thought it’d be cool. However, next thing I know, he grabs it and just shoves it off the hill. I didn’t find it funny at the time, but thinking back, it must’ve been hysterical just watching me cling to a wildly bouncing shopping cart for dear life. But yeah, when it finally stopped, I was just _screaming_ . Somewhere during that crazy ride, my shoulder got dislocated. Spitfire felt _so_ bad, but ya know, it’s whatever. It was my idea to stand on it in the first place. I already felt stupid for what happened, but it increased tenfold when I went through my own rehabilitation. Anytime I complained about it, Ramirez would just say ‘You did this to yourself, _pendejo_ , so you better suck it up and get it over with.’ I still felt stupid, but I did what she told me to do. Even if I wanted to stop despite not feeling any pain, I knew that it would just take longer if I didn't do them.”

When he finished his story, Jonesy looked back at the EGO agents with a smile. They were just staring at him silently, not really expecting to hear that from him.

“My point is that I know you feel stupid doing these exercises, but we all know that it’s necessary if you want to perform as well as you do. You’ve tolerated being around me during your healing period before now, but if you’d like, how about I stick around for this one too just so you can have someone who knows what it’s like?”

After a few seconds of silence, Turk smiled as he let out a sigh. He nudged his shoulder against his friend’s with a chuckle.

“Alright, but just so you know, I actually enjoy your company.” The fisherman clarified. “You were the only thing that kept me sane while I would have otherwise died of boredom.”

Jonesy smiled wider. “I’m glad to hear that.”

“Your pronunciation of ‘ _pendejo_ ’ was atrocious, though.”

“Sue me, I’m white.”

Remedy smiled at the two as they laughed. It was nice to see the fisherman relax willingly. Normally, he was too stubborn to enjoy himself from time to time despite their insistence.

“Ready to try again, Turk?” The medic inquired.

“Yeah. If I don’t do it now, this’ll just take longer.”

The soldier laughed when the EGO leader wink at him.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“Shoulders and arms down.” Remedy reminded her leader.

“I know, I know.”

“Relax, Turk.” Jonesy said reassuringly.

Turk felt his face burn as his friend placed a hand on his healed shoulder. He made a brief mental note on how gentle it was. He glanced at him and saw him nod with a smile. The agent took a deep breath in and let it out before trying again. This time, he managed to keep his arms and shoulders down.

“Good, now hold that for 6 seconds and then release.” The medic informed him.

“This is kinda uncomfortable.” Turk commented.

“Unfortunately, you’re gonna have to repeat this about 8 to 12 times. We’ll start small and begin with 8.”

Turk sighed as he released his hold. This is going to be a long recovery.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


_A few weeks later_

“So your arm’s getting back to normal?” Journey asked with a smile.

Turk nodded, returning her smile. “Yep. Still getting there, but I can move it more than I could before starting rehabilitation.”

It had been a few weeks since he had started his rehab. Jonesy remained true to his word and was always there for him for encouragement, not once missing a day. Sometimes, he would bring Bonesy along, jokingly claiming he could be his second “support system”. Turk and Remedy later learned that he had actually been setting aside a few minor things just so he could show up.

“Glup, glup glup glup.” Rippley chimed in. He tilted his head when the leader buried his face into his hand with a groan.

“ _Yes_ , Jonesy texted me before he showed up _and_ has been encouraging me to keep going whenever I feel uncomfortable with the exercises.”

“Glup?”

“Sorry, Rip…” The fisherman said with a sigh. “It’s just that Outcast won’t leave me alone about Jonesy ever since I first started spending my time recovering with him. I don’t understand why though. What’s so amusing about spending time with a friend?”

“Well in her defense,” the EGO co-leader began, “he’s pretty much the only one of your friends who doesn’t need to do a whole lot to convince you to have some fun. Think about it. How much did he need to say before you agreed to hang out with him?”

Turk opened his mouth to defend himself before he froze. The more he thought about it, the more he began to understand what she was getting at. After a few moments of silence, he slowly closed his mouth.

There was nothing he could say to argue against it.

“He said… the list of activities I do when I’m not working was too small…”

Journey smirked. “See my point? He didn’t have to say a lot to get you to do something new. Meanwhile, we’re sometimes forced to drag you out of your seat just to get you to sleep.”

“But that’s the thing. He didn’t make me try anything that strayed too far from my comfort zone. The only thing that could be considered ‘new’ was the movies he suggested we watch.”

At this, the mountain climber raised an eyebrow.

“Really? You’d think he’d want to have you try something more… exciting.”

“Glup.” Rippley agreed with a nod.

“Yeah, you’d think, but no. Instead, we’d just grab a drink or something to eat, talk, ask each other questions, walk _and_ talk, or watch a movie he’d think I would like. Maybe he just didn’t want to overwhelm me?”

“Maybe.” The pink haired woman shrugged. “Or maybe he wanted to show you that he’s not always a thrill seeker and has a calmer side to him.”

The fisherman just hummed in thought. That did sound reasonable. After all, they did consider them weird due to them enjoying dangerous activities. Hell, they thought Jonesy was the weirdest since he was always trying to befriend them despite what they did to him and his people when they first met.

He turned his attention back to his teammates and was about to say something when he was suddenly interrupted by an irritated groan. They turned around in the direction they heard it from in time to see the exact same man they were talking about trying to walk away from his pursuing dinosaur costumed lookalike.

“For the millionth time, _leave me alone_ , _Rex_.” Jonesy groaned.

“Chicken!” Rex heckled. “We’ve got a chicken over here!”

“I’m _not_ a damn-”

_“Bawk bawk!”_ The dino dressed man shouted tauntingly as he began strutting like a chicken. _“Look at me! I’m Jonesy and I’m refusing my awesome friend’s challenge because I’m too much of a-”_

Before he could finish, the soldier suddenly stopped walking and spun around.

**_“FINE!! IF IT MEANS YOU’LL FINALLY FUCK OFF, I’LL DO IT!!!”_ **

The agents quickly jumped to their feet and ran over to the pair.

“Jonesy!” Turk shouted.

The blonde turned around and froze at the sight of the trio.

“O-Oh, guys!” He forced out, flustered. “I-I uh…”

“What’s going on here?” Journey inquired.

Jonesy didn’t say anything. He just shifted uncomfortably when Turk placed a hand on his shoulder and directed his gaze down towards his feet, ashamed of both his frustrated outburst towards one of his friends and having been seen during said outburst.

“I challenged Jonesy to a dare and he refused, so I called him a chicken to get him to accept.” Rex explained matter-of-factly. He was clearly unfazed by his friend’s frustration.

“That’s pretty dickish.” The fisherman stated.

“And yet, we’re still friends!”

“Why, I’ll never understand.”

Rex just shrugged before turning on his heel with his arms casually folded behind his head and started walking away.

“Remember, blondie,” he began with a snicker, “you have to do it tomorrow for exactly an hour the moment you put it on!”

Jonesy muttered something irritably under his breath.

“Glup glup.”

“Rippley’s right.” Turk agreed. “You don’t _have_ to do whatever he dared you to do.”

“I do, actually.” The Default responded with a sigh. “I already accepted it, so now I have to do what he says. If I don’t, I’ll never hear the end of it for months. It’s just how it works with him.”

“Well, what was the dare?” The EGO co-leader questioned.

“You’ll probably see it tomorrow…” He groaned. “I gotta go. I need to call in a favor.”

As he walked away, the agents looked at each other in both concern and confusion. Whatever the dare was, he looked incredibly embarrassed and uncomfortable with it to the point he didn’t want to share what it is. The secrecy was concerning, but knowing how different the Atheneans were from them, it was most likely something harmless. However, it did raise a question.

What could be so embarrassing that could make Jonesy so uncomfortable that he’d be hesitant to accept a dare?

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


The next day, Turk rotated his healed shoulder as he walked through Spawn Island. Despite being told they had defended the EGO team from ALTER, Midas was still requiring them to check on the Atheneans. Turk had volunteered to go with Outcast, Journey, and Cameo since he was cleared to go back to work, but only for tasks that don’t involve heavy lifting nor going out onto the field. 

The squad was taking their time catching up with their friends, but the leader had noticed that Jonesy wasn’t around. He wandered off in search of him the moment his sister and friends weren’t looking. He didn’t feel like dealing with their teasing comments today. After all, there’s nothing wrong with looking for a friend.

“Looking for someone?”

Flinching out of his thoughts, Turk turned around to see Drift looking at him with his head slightly tilted.

“Uh… yeah. How’d you know?”

The masked man chuckled. “It’s pretty obvious, man. Even more obvious that you’re looking for Jonesy.”

Turk said nothing.

“You two are practically becoming two peas in a pod, Turk.” Drift explained before pointing at one of the houses. “He’s in there with John and Batman. They’ve been helping him get ready for Rex’s dare.”

“What exactly is the dare?” The fisherman inquired with a raised eyebrow.

“I was told not to tell you anything except for the fact that it’s not anything bad.”

Now even more confused, he made his way over to the house. He noticed that the curtains had been drawn to prevent anyone from looking in. Just as he reached his hand up to knock, Turk suddenly heard a crash from the other side of the door.

“Are you _sure_ you don’t want our help?” John asked.

“I’ve got this!” Jonesy responded. He sounded out of breath.

“You say that, but it keeps getting worse.” Batman stated in his typical blunt tone.

Turk hesitated for a few seconds before finally knocking. Everything went quiet inside until he heard Jonesy quietly ask someone to see who it was. When the fisherman noticed one of the curtains slightly pull back to reveal the dark knight, he gave him an awkward wave.

“Hey.” He greeted awkwardly. “Can uh… can I come in?”

Bats glanced over his shoulder, presumably at Jonesy, before he covered the window again and unlocked the door. Turk slipped inside and quickly closed the door behind him. When he saw the man he’d been looking for, he froze.

Jonesy was wearing a fancy looking suit that was slightly disheveled with his hands tied behind his back with a black tie. He glanced at his bound hands and tried to wiggle them free before looking back at the EGO leader with an embarrassed grin.

“Hey Turk. Um… fancy seeing you here. Heh… Get it? Fancy? I’m in a suit?”

“Wow…” Turk muttered. “That’s… certainly unexpected… Why are your hands tied behind your back?”

“Funny story actually.” Jonesy chuckled awkwardly as he tried to pull his hands free again. “I uh… I don’t exactly know what happened. See, I don’t particularly enjoy suits, so I’m not exactly skilled with tying a tie. I can do it, but only after about an hour of struggling with it.”

“We left him alone with the tie for like 5 minutes, and when we came back, he somehow tied his hands together.” John spoke up. “Then we left him again for just one minute, only to hear a crash. We came back to find that his hands were now behind his back.”

“Why not untie them for him?”

“Because he won’t let us.” Batman explained.

“I’ve got this, really.” The soldier reassured as he began struggling again. “I just need a minute.”

“You sure?” The bearded man questioned with an eyebrow raised. “Cuz from the way I see it, you’re stuck. If you really had this, you’d be free by now.”

“Just let me do this.”

“Alright, if you say so. I’m going to go grab a drink. Want anything?”

“Nah. I’m borrowing this suit from Bats. Not exactly sure why he has it, but I’d rather not get it dirty. Well, more than it probably already is.”

Turk shrugged and walked out. He was gone for about 10 minutes. By the time he came back, he saw that Jonesy had somehow hogtied his hands and feet together. John and Batman were nowhere in sight.

“What the?”

“Mistakes were made…” The blonde responded miserably. “I… don’t know where John and Bats are… They kinda… walked away…”

The leader sighed as he put his cup of Slurp down before walking over to his friend and crouching down next to him.

“Do you want some help now?” He asked.

“… Yes please…”

Turk reached up, and after a minute of struggling, he pulled the knot loose. Jonesy’s arms and legs flopped back down with a thud. The fisherman then helped get the soldier back to his feet and dusted him off. When his friend tried to reach for the tie again, he held up his hand with a small smile to stop him.

“Let me.” He said.

Before the blonde could respond, the bearded fisherman wrapped the tie around his neck and tied it for him. Once that was done, he began helping him straighten out the suit.

“So this was the dare?” Turk asked.

“Yeah.” Jonesy said, watching his friend’s actions. “Rex knows I don’t like wearing fancy suits, so he thought it’d be hilarious for me to wear one for an hour. You already know I accepted it, but… I hate this. It’s just not me, ya know? I’ve never understood how John could do this. It’s a damn monkey suit if you ask me.”

Turk hummed as he straightened out the collar before double checking that the tie was tight enough to stay on while also not being too tight to choke him.

“Then why agree to this?”

“Rex wouldn’t leave me alone about it. That’s why I was so pissed yesterday when I finally accepted the dare. It was either wear a suit for just an hour or deal with more of his heckling.”

“Why are you even friends with him?”

“He’s a dick, I won’t lie about that, but he’s actually a good friend once you get to know him. Rex, Brite Bomber, and Cuddles were actually the ones to find Drift. They showed him around Athena before bringing him to us. Anyone who tried to give Drift trouble was immediately growled at by Rex with Cuddles backing him up with eager threats of violence. He won’t admit it, but he can be pretty protective of those he cares about. Sometimes, I’m one of the ones he’s protective of under certain circumstances. You mostly just see it with his squad, though. Especially his girlfriend.”

Turk hummed again before finally looking up to tell Jonesy that he was done. However, when he did, both men froze. In the time he was helping him, the EGO leader had gotten closer to the Default co-leader than he realized. Both could practically feel each other’s breath and the heat radiating off of each other as bright red blushes burned onto their faces. After a few tense moments, both men quickly pulled away and looked everywhere but at each other.

“I-I um…” Turk forced out nervously as he pulled one side of his beanie down. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know that-”

“No, no, it’s ok.” Jonesy said quickly. “I just… I-I didn’t expect you t-to look up when you did… I was just… Um…”

“Caught off-guard?…”

“Yeah…”

Neither knew what to say to each other. They stood in complete awkward silence until Jonesy finally muttered that he was heading out to complete the dare before quickly walking out, leaving Turk to just stand there alone. He leaned against a table and pressed a hand against his heart.

Why was it suddenly so hard to breathe?

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“Looking good, Jonesy!”

“O-Oh! Um… thanks.”

Turk watched the Atheneans compliment the soldier in silence. He could feel rage and something he was too mad to identify boiling inside him, but he didn’t know why. It’s not unusual for friends to give each other compliments and he had to admit that Jonesy did look pretty good in a suit.

So why does every compliment that the blonde receives infuriate him so much?

“You’ve been glaring at this for like half an hour, Turk.” Outcast snickered. When she didn’t receive an irritated response, she placed a hand on his shoulder. “ _Hermano_ , what’s wrong?”

“This pisses me off.” The fisherman grumbled.

“But why?”

“I… I don’t know…”

“Are you jealous?” Cameo questioned.

Turk buried his face into his hand and sighed. Maybe he was, but it still didn’t make sense. He shouldn’t have any reason to feel jealous over Jonesy’s friends complimenting him, yet here he is. When he felt someone tap on his shoulder, he looked up to see Journey pointing at Ramirez, who seemed to be silently watching them for a brief second before looking back at Jonesy. He watched as she walked up to her embarrassed friend, circled him while looking at him up and down, then finally stopped in front of the blonde with a confident smile.

“I have to say, soldier,” she began with a playful wink, “you sure do clean up nicely. If you weren’t already Turk’s prey, I’d try to catch you myself.”

Jonesy’s face turned a darker shade of red as he looked down and squirmed uncomfortably.

“Th-That’s certainly something c-coming from you…”

  
At this, Turk promptly crushed his cup in his hand as his jaw clenched in anger. He hated this. He  _ hated _ this with a burning passion. He wanted it to stop. Both everyone’s compliments and the rage and jealousy boiling inside him. He just wanted it to end.

“This is a prized fish, _hermano_.” Outcast whispered to him. “You’d better cast your reel into this pond if you don’t wanna miss the big one.”

The EGO leader sputtered something unintelligible for a few seconds before turning to her.

_“Don’t you have someone else to tell your fishing metaphors to?!”_ He shouted angrily before storming away.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


_9:56 PM_

“Admit it, Jonesy! You dressed up for him!” Emmy laughed.

_“I did not!”_ Jonesy screeched indignantly as most of the Defaults laughed.

“Then why’d you get so sad when he stormed off?”

“I-It’s not like that!”

“Then what _is_ it like?”

“I…”

Ramirez, who had been silently listening the entire time as she played with her hamster, finally stood up. 

“Alright, that’s enough Emmy. I’m sure Jonesy has his reasons, but teasing him isn’t going to make him talk.”

Before anyone could say anything else, they heard someone knocking on the door.

“Come in.”

Catalyst opened the door and walked in, her powers crackling up her arms.

“We have something to report.” She explained.

“What’d you guys find?” Ramirez inquired.

“We’ve detected a power anomaly somewhere on the island. But when we went to investigate it, we found nothing.”

The Defaults looked at each other, concerned. Could ALTER have returned already? And if so, who or what did they send?

“Continue to investigate this anomaly for now.” Ramirez said. “We’ll inform EGO and the others of this development. If you feel like you guys need it, you may bring more people with you for backup. Just remember to proceed with caution until we know what we’re dealing with.”

Catalyst nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”


	10. Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The unknown leads to questions.

“I know that look, Jonesy.”

Jonesy glanced up from petting his dog to look at his best friend.

“What look?” He asked.

“The look you get when you’re conflicted about something.” Ramirez clarified. She smiled down at Hamirez as she scratched her stomach. “And it’s not hard to figure out what’s on your mind. You want to talk about it?”

“I dunno…” Jonesy muttered hesitantly.

Bonesy whimpered at the sudden change in his master. He stood up on his hind legs and pawed at his chest.

“As a friend, not as a soldier or leader.”

The blonde hesitated for a minute while his friend patiently waited for his response. Finally, he sighed and held his dog closer to his chest. The Default leader moved to sit next to him.

“I told you about how Turk helped me with the suit, but not what happened when he was done…”

“What happened?”

“When he looked up at me, we… we were inches away from each other. It felt like time froze when we realized this. My face was burning so much, I thought I was sick. I… I could _feel_ him breathing, Ramirez. And my heart… I thought it was gonna beat out of my chest. It was so awkward, yet… it felt right… I never realized how blue his eyes were until then. I don’t know what’s going on. Is something wrong with me?”

Ramirez remained silent throughout the whole thing, just letting Jonesy speak. When he was finished, she placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him.

“Nothing’s wrong with you, _hermano_. And besides, I think you already know what’s going on.”

The blonde was silent for a few moments before he shook his head. A bright red blush had stretched across his face.

“No, I can’t possibly be-… Then again… No. No, I can’t be! I-I’m still learning about him, how-”

“Jonesy.” The leader interrupted as she squeezed her friend’s shoulder reassuringly. “It’s alright. Perhaps I’m just reading too much into this, but I’m pretty confident in my assessment. Even so, it’s ultimately up to you to decide whether or not I’m right. I know you can figure it out. Don’t be afraid to let people into your heart again. I know you’re scared at the thought of losing someone you care about again, but you shouldn’t let that control you or your decisions. Explore what you’re feeling and if I turn out to be right, allow yourself to pursue a chance at happiness again.”

Jonesy just stared at Ramirez in complete silence. The fear and anxiety he felt was still there, but he felt more at ease and slightly more confident in himself thanks to her words. He let out a tired sounding chuckle as he allowed himself to relax before looking back up at her.

“You always know what to say to cheer me up…” He said.

“As your best friend, it’s basically my duty to make sure you’re happy.” She responded with a smile.

“I’m still not sure about this…”

“Give it time. This isn’t going to be an easy question to answer, but it will come to you when the time is right. I know you’re still hurting. This is a wound that will take time to heal, but you’ve been making progress in telling someone and being around people who make you happy.”

The blonde smiled to himself as he felt the brunette pull him into a hug. Leaning into it, he knew what he had to do. After all, no one gave better advice than Ramirez.

“Remedy has a schedule worked out for Turk’s rehab exercises.” Jonesy remarked. “She’s sent it to me. I checked today’s earlier and it’s in half an hour.”

Ramirez chuckled. “You know Banshee and I can cover for you. You’ll be late though.”

“Something tells me he’ll understand. I’ll let them know.”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Turk stared at the object in his hand before looking up at the medic in front of him.

“Really? A broom handle?” He asked.

“It’s for shoulder flexion.” Remedy explained. “You’ll lie down on your back with your hands on the ends to where they’re slightly wider than your shoulders and your palms facing down and then slowly raise your arms over your head as you keep your elbows straight until you feel a stretch in your shoulders, chest, and upper back. You’ll have to hold it for 15 to 30 seconds and repeat 2 to 4 times.”

“Whoever came up with these rehab exercises for dislocated shoulders is weird.”

_“Hey guys, sorry I’m late!”_ Jonesy shouted as he ran up to them.

The agents gave him welcoming smiles.

“I was actually getting worried that you were going to miss today’s exercises by the time you called us to let us know.” The fisherman laughed. “You missed the shoulder squeezes. I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten used to them. It’s not as awkward anymore.”

“We were about to do a new exercise called shoulder flexion.” The medic explained.

“Oof, that’s a weird one for sure.” The soldier said with a chuckle.

Turk felt his smile widen a little. He definitely agreed with him after visualizing what he’d probably look like during Rem’s explanation, but the thought was pushed back a little at the sound of his friend’s chuckle. He had initially thought nothing of it at first, but after yesterday’s event, he had begun to realize how much he was starting to enjoy the sound. It was a thought that made his heart flutter, but had also brought on a boatload of confusion for him.

After what had happened, the agent began realizing how accustomed he had become to being around the soldier. Not only that, he realized that he liked it. He enjoyed his friend’s stupid jokes, his company, his determination towards anything he deemed important, his caring attitude, his openness of being who he is without fear of being judged, everything. But he couldn’t understand why. He’s never felt like this about anyone before.

“Ready to start, Turk?” Remedy inquired, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“As I’ll ever be.” He said with a shrug.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“Alright Turk, take five.” Remedy said with a smile.

The fisherman placed down the broom handle and began rotating his shoulders. His arms felt sore.

“I’m going to grab something to eat.” Jonesy stated. “You guys want anything while I’m gone?”

“No thanks, we’re good.” Turk responded. “Rem brought a few things for us earlier before you got here.”

The blonde smiled at them before he left. The moment he was out of sight, the fisherman sighed to himself as he slumped in his seat. Remedy gently placed a hand on his shoulder in response.

“You alright?” She asked.

“I’m so confused…” He confessed quietly. When he noticed her patient expression as she waited for him to elaborate, he stood up and began pacing. “I just don’t understand. What’s going on with me, Rem? I’ve known for awhile now that I enjoy Jonesy’s company, but recently, I realized that it’s more than that. I’m at a point where I’m just… used to him being around me. I think a few times, I’ve felt a little upset whenever I realize that he _isn’t_. His smile alone makes my heart skip when I see it’s directed at me. When I realized how close I had gotten to him yesterday, a part of me felt… excited and happy as if I had been waiting for that. But when Ramirez said what she did to Jonesy for wearing that suit, it felt like every fiber of my being wanted to do _something_ to make all of those damn compliments stop. I didn’t like that feeling, Rem, but everything else, I don’t know what to think about it. It feels good, but I’m just so confused. I can’t wrap my head around it. What’s happening to me, Remedy? I… I’ve never felt like this about anyone before…”

Turk’s distressed pacing came to a halt when Remedy grabbed his arm and pulled him into a comforting hug. With his mind going a mile a minute, he hesitated before slowly hugging back.

“Sounds like you’ve got a lot on your mind, Turk. I have a strong feeling of what’s going on, but it’s not something that’s up to me to decide for you. What I can tell you is that it’s perfectly normal for someone in your position.”

“I don’t understand… What’s wrong with me?…”

Pulling away from the hug, the medic smiled gently as she sat her leader back down.

“Nothing.” She reassured as she placed a hand on his arm. “You need to think about this. It’s easy to receive someone else’s opinion on things like this, but I think it’s better for you to try and figure it out for yourself. When you do, I can promise you that I’ll try to help you with it.”

Turk nodded silently. He still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of what he was feeling, but he felt a little more confident about the situation than he did before.

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


_6:32 PM_

Catalyst stopped the motorboat she was driving at the fishing dock on the Eye Land. She pulled out the keys as her squad, which consisted of Sidewinder, Demi, and Fable, carefully stepped out. Shoving the keys into her pocket, she followed her squad to meet up with the second patrol squad.

“Anything?” The masked woman asked.

Master Key shook his head. “Nothing on our end. We’re still waiting for the others to report in.”

After the Atheneans were informed of the discovery of the unidentified power anomaly, another squad had volunteered to help with the investigation.

“This here don’t make a lick of sense!” Calamity, who was on MK’s squad, declared. “How in the hell does something setting off Omen’s fancy ass abilities just vanish into thin air without so much as a trace?”

“Clearly, it is hiding.” Omen said.

Red knight scoffed. “Wherever it is, I _will_ kick its ass if it so much as even try to lay a finger on anyone.”

At that moment, the two squads could faintly hear the distant sound of another motorboat. They turned towards the direction it was coming from and saw the other squad, which consisted of Sleuth, John, Batman, and Reaper, approaching their location. The second their boat was parked, Reaper held up a very unusual looking scythe. It was black with a bit of blue on the bottom and had what looked like dark blue, light blue, and purple flames coming out of the side of it.

“It’s not the source of the anomaly,” Batman remarked, “but it is evidence that we’re no longer alone once again. We found it at Steamy Stacks. We checked every square inch of that power plant and found this on one of the monitors.”

The vigilante handed over a custom made map detailing the locations of every EGO station and the most popular drop spots for the Atheneans whenever they play their games.

“I suspect that whoever these belong to will be back. They may not only attempt to retrieve it, but also continue with whatever plans they have.” Sleuth concluded.

“That’s a no brainer, Sleuth.” Catalyst said. “We still need to hand this over to EGO and the Defaults. They’ll want to know to be more cautious.”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------

  
  


_7:23 PM_

_EGO Science Station_

Journey turned over the scythe repeatedly, intrigued by its design. She hummed in thought as she placed it back down onto the scanner while Cameo sat at the monitor running the scans, carefully observing every line of code that appeared. Turk sat at a nearby table with the Default leaders observing the map. They all frowned at the specific locations marked detailing where each side might be at any given point in time.

“Doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen before…” She mused to herself. When the scans were complete, she looked over at the fashionista. “What do the scans say?”

Cameo’s face scrunched up in confusion and concern. “These readings are very unusual. I do agree with the Bat when he says that this isn’t the source of the power anomaly, but the energy radiating from it might suggest it’s powered by that same anomaly to some extent.”

“Any signs of ALTER on it?”

“Not physically, but it does have their stink. Perhaps it’s another creation of Toxin?”

“Regardless of what it is, this map gives us reason to believe that it’s been watching us.” Ramirez spoke up. “The locations of your bases are well known to everyone at this point, but to have pinpointed our favorite drops is something that requires statistics from either experience or observation. And since we’ve yet to actually see anyone new in our games, we have no reason to believe they’ve been joining in on them. Not without anyone at least spotting them participating…”

Banshee and Jonesy glanced at each other.

“Are you suggesting that there’s a possibility that one of us may have seen this newcomer but didn’t say anything?” The black woman inquired.

“It’s not out of the range of possibilities, but I’m not ready to believe that our people wouldn’t have at least brought it up to someone, let alone us. Especially given what we know about ALTER.”

Jonesy frowned. “I don’t like thinking that whatever this is was probably watching me and Turk before he began his rehab. I especially hate the thought of it watching everyone I care about without our knowledge.”

Turk placed a hand on his friend’s arm with an understanding look. He didn’t like the idea of being watched either. Neither him nor 8-Ball was ready to go back out into the field yet and the ninja’s recovery time had already been doubled due to ALTER’s attack. Him and his team have already had a few close calls. He didn’t know how much longer their good luck would last, and he certainly isn’t ready to test it.

“I know where you’re coming from with this situation, Jonesy. I don’t like this as much as anyone here. Regardless, I need you to remain calm.” The EGO leader explained. “I know that it’ll probably be difficult, especially with what happened last time I tried to reassure you that we’d be fine, but I’ve learned from that mistake. This time, we’re going to be more careful and the boss will hear of this as soon as possible. None of us will go anywhere alone until we solve this issue.”

Journey chuckled. “Even when you’re not ready to go out onto the field, nothing will stop our leader’s brain from thinking of strategies. Still, one can never be too careful. Especially since we don’t even know what we’re up against.”

Jonesy looked down in thought. The fisherman was right. It _was_ hard to remain calm with the situation. Not only was EGO being watched, but him and his people as well. They didn’t even know by who. Still, they’ve both learned more about each other than when ALTER first became known to them.

“You promise to be more careful?” The blonde questioned hesitantly, cautiously eyeing the man next to him.

At this, everyone watched as the bearded man unsuccessfully tried to hold back a snicker before he leaned back in his chair with roarious laughter. If anyone were to ask his team, they’d admit that they rarely see him laugh, let alone this hard.

“The hell is so funny?” Banshee asked.

“I-It’s just funny that he’s asking me to promise to be more cautious as if he won’t be nearby when we all know that he most definitely _will_ be by my side!” Turk explained as he wiped a tear from his eye.

Jonesy paused to think for a few seconds before he too began to laugh, causing his friend to start again. Turk was right. Ever since the Atheneans protected EGO from ALTER and the leader first began his recovery, he’s been by his side on an almost daily basis. Although their current situation was very serious, neither seemed to be unable to _not_ find the humor in the fact they’ll still be together.

Their laughter got the others to join in with some snickers, chuckles, and giggles before they finally managed to stop. As they began trying to catch their breaths, Turk looked over at Jonesy with a smile before bumping his shoulder against the soldier’s.

“Still, if it’ll put your mind at ease, I promise that I will.” He said reassuringly. “I know that you’ll still be there for my rehabilitation exercises, and will most likely stick around after, but I can only imagine how worried you must’ve been about us when I refused your help the first time. I can promise you that we’ll all be careful until we get to the bottom of this.”

The blonde smiled back at the dark haired man, a sight that caused Ramirez and Banshee to smile. It was relieving to see the spark he used to have in his eyes again. They knew he needed time to heal the holes in his heart, but both could already see the progress he was making thanks to the fisherman.

“We’ll have everyone be more alert to any suspicious individuals.” Ramirez said. “If they see anything or anyone unusual, they are to report it to anyone who’s available. Likewise, if you guys find anything, it would be beneficial if you share your discoveries with us so we all may bring this to its conclusion more efficiently. In the meantime, our patrols are going to focus their investigation on Steamy Stacks since that’s where these items were found. Should any of you who’s able to have any desires to help, you’re welcomed to go with them. Until then, I recommend informing your boss of this update immediately.”

“Sounds fair.” Turk agreed with a nod before turning to Jonesy. “We both know the answer, but do you want to go with me and Journey to the comm tower?”

As the EGO leader expected, his answer from the Default co-leader came in the form of the smile he’s become so fond of.


End file.
